


Not a Card Game in Sight

by SamCyberCat



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Angst, Bullying, Can be read as platonic or shippy, Churches & Cathedrals, Dubious Consent, Dubious Morality, Extremely Dubious Consent, F/F, F/M, Family, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M, Manipulation, Multi, Near Death Experiences, Polyamory, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Season 0, Yu-Gi-Oh Shin Duel Monsters II | Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses, abuse survivor, bully!jounouchi, casual sexism, dated sexism, slight au on how yuugi & jounouchi became friends, this was 2007 so they call him yami
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:14:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 28,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26845723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamCyberCat/pseuds/SamCyberCat
Summary: A selection of my older Yu-Gi-Oh! DM oneshots that I still feel hold up and haven't already reposted here. These are posted in the order they were originally written and cover a variety of characters, friendships and romantic ships. The only edits made to them are fixing grammar errors, etc. All of these were written between 2007 and 2013.
Relationships: Arthur Hopkins | Arthur Hawkins & Rebecca Hopkins | Rebecca Hawkins, Bakura Amane & Bakura Ryou, Bakura Ryou/Mutou Yuugi, C. Seto Rosenkreuz/Henry Tudor (Yu-Gi-Oh), Dartz/Pegasus J. Crawford | Maximillion Pegasus, Honda Hiroto | Tristan Taylor & Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler, Honda Hiroto | Tristan Taylor/Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler, Honda Hiroto | Tristan Taylor/Mazaki Anzu | Tea Gardner, Honda Hiroto | Tristan Taylor/Nosaka Miho, Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler & Kawai Shizuka | Serenity Wheeler, Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler & Mutou Yuugi, Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler & Red Eyes Black Dragon, Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kujaku Mai | Mai Valentine/Valon, Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Mutou Yuugi, Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Yami Yuugi, Kaiba Seto/Yami Yuugi, Kawai Shizuka | Serenity Wheeler/Mazaki Anzu | Tea Gardner, Kawai Shizuka | Serenity Wheeler/Otogi Ryuuji | Duke Devlin, Mazaki Anzu | Tea Gardner/Mutou Yuugi, Mazaki Anzu | Tea Gardner/Nosaka Miho, Mutou Sugoroku | Solomon Moto & Mutou Yuugi, Otogi Ryuuji | Duke Devlin & Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler, Yami Yuugi & Kawai Shizuka
Kudos: 13





	1. Yuugi & Jounouchi

**Author's Note:**

> The title of each chapter will show the characters/ships featured in that oneshot. Hope you enjoy the look back at some YGO content from 13 years ago!
> 
> \---
> 
> (chapter description)
> 
> As a bully Jounouchi enjoys having an easy victim like Yugi, but does he hate him enough to see him drown?

Faster and faster he ran. He felt his little heart might burst. He could never remember running like this before.

A flash of blonde raced around the corner. He was getting closer. Or at least he hoped he was.

It had started earlier that day in class. Yugi was always a quiet boy who kept himself to himself, often very deeply immersed in games of any sort. His only friend was a girl named Anzu, who protected him from bullies. It was kind of embarrassing for a boy to be looked after by a girl like he was, but as long as he was safe, he didn't complain.

But there was one bully Anzu had failed to protect him from, new student, Jounouchi Katsuya. Him and his friend, Honda, had transferred over from another school, and their first day in class had to be a day when Anzu was absent.

They looked like nice enough people, Yugi would have liked to become friends with them, but it was clear they didn't want to be friends with him. Both boys had shunned Yugi and to make matters worse, Jounouchi had stayed behind after school to give Yugi a "talk".

Trust was Yugi's fault. He agreed to come, in the hope that, while Honda wasn't around, Jounouchi may be a different person and want to be his friend. This was far from the case.

Jounouchi had jumped the smaller boy, stealing one of the games he'd borrowed from his grandpa's store for the day and running off. Yugi knew he could have walked away right there, but grandpa would be angry if he came back without the game, so he followed.

Which is what he was doing presently. Although Jounouchi was in better physical shape than him, he had been running for a long time and Yugi was persistent. He knew he was wearing Jounouchi down.

Eventually Jounouchi did have to stop to rest. He did so behind a dumpster, under the false impression that Yugi couldn't have kept up with him for this long and was far behind.

While he was catching his breath, he dropped the game on the ground carelessly. It made a clattering sound as it impacted. Though Jounouchi couldn't care less about it being damaged; he'd damaged much worse in the past.

That was when Yugi made his move. He sprinted round the corner, crouching to the ground so he could grab the game and go before Jounouchi had a chance to react.

The blonde bully bellowed a cry of rage, then began his pursuit.

Already regretting his move, Yugi knew it would be best to dodge around alleys and awkward to reach places. Since Jounouchi was tall, running on straight plains would only give him an advantage, which Yugi didn't want. And having to dodge objects would slow him down considerably, while not bothering one as small as Yugi.

However, there were only so many alleys in the city and before Yugi was anywhere near the Kame Game Store, he reached the mouth of the ocean at Domino Pier. Glancing around, he saw a wooden makeshift raft strung to the dock. Thanking this convenience, Yugi climbed onto the raft and fumbled with the ropes holding it in place. But before he could finish untying it, Jounouchi had come round the corner and was slowly approaching.

He took one step onto the raft that Yugi was now crouched upon.

"Don't stand too close!" Yugi called. He knew that, although the raft was strong enough to hold a child-sized person like himself, it was nowhere near strong enough to hold someone as big as Jounouchi.

But the bully didn't listen, he stepped onto the raft himself, causing it to tremble then snap where Jounouchi had placed his feet. The force of this made Yugi to fall back into the water. Jounouchi struggled to free his feet, then watched as Yugi splashed around helplessly, before sinking.

He could have climbed out and walked away right there, but then he'd be a murder.

Jounouchi gulped for breath and dived in after his victim. Yugi was already sinking far down. He could probably swim out if he tried, but he was still clutching that damn game to his chest tightly. _It must really mean a lot to him…_

Propelling himself forward, Jounouchi reached Yugi and grabbed him, holding him in his arms. Entirely relying on his feet for power, he made his way back to the surface.

After breathing the fresh air, he lifted Yugi carefully onto the dock's ledge, before climbing up himself. Yugi was in tears and still clutching the game, but when Jounouchi climbed onto the ledge, he soon dropped the game and grabbed him in a tight hug. The force almost caused Jounouchi to fall back into the ocean. He struggled for a few seconds, then pushed Yugi away from him.

"Don't think I was saving you because I want to be your friend! If this happens again, then I'd let you drown!"

With that, Jounouchi took to his heels and ran, not looking back to see Yugi's reaction.

Several years had past since that day. After being possessed by Malik's Millenium Rod, Jounouchi was forced to fight against Yugi over the dock. They had both been chained to an anchor and whoever won the duel would cause for a box to open with a key inside, so they could free themselves. Yugi had won the duel, but before the last seconds of the counter had run out, he'd made his way to Jounouchi's side of the field. He unchained his friend, before being pulled into the water by the anchor.

Jounouchi blinked back to his senses long enough to see what happened. He took one look at the surface of the ocean.

Then he dived after his best friend.


	2. Yami no Yuugi & Shizuka (with bg Yami/Jou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shizuka never thought she’d meet anyone who found her brother to be as much of an amazing person as she did. Or that she’d ever meet a boy who wasn’t attracted to her.

Shizuka sat nervously looking out of her window. She was watching the train station opposite her house with determined interest.

The reason for this was because of a phone call she'd received earlier that day. Living away from Domino City, she didn't often hear from her brother's friends, so it took her by surprise to have one of them call her.

"Hello?" she questioned nervously, as she'd answered the phone.

"Hello," answered the caller in a confident, but also slightly nervous tone, "This is Yugi calling."

She froze for a second, trying to work something out in her mind. The Yugi that her brother knew had a very timid voice, not like this Yugi at all. Coming to recognise people by the tone of their voice from her previously blind state, she could tell there was no way this could be that Yugi calling her.

There was the other Yugi though. The other side to him that they all saw while he was duelling. He had a strong, confident voice.

She decided this must be the Yugi she was talking to.

"This is Shizuka Kawai I'm talking to?" asked the other Yugi, snapping her out of her current wave of thought.

"Y-yes… It is," she stuttered.

"Good," was the reply, "Because I really need to speak to you about a matter of personal importance. If it isn't too bold to ask, might I come visit you?"

She swallowed a gulp, opening and closing her mouth a few times before answering, "…Yes… That will be fine."

Which was why she was so nervous at the present time.

Not because she had feelings for Yami (As the others sometimes referred to him as) however. Quite the opposite, in fact.

In her life, the only man who she really loved was her brother Jounouchi. He meant everything to her. He had protected her, believed in her and even fought to save her eyesight. He was the only man she needed.

Not to say she didn't have friends who were boys. From hanging around with her brother at Battle City, she'd managed to make friends with quite a few boys. But this was where the problem came into play. Two of her brother's friends, Honda and Otogi, were attracted to her.

As friends, she adored them and enjoyed spending time with them, but the idea of having a romantic relationship with anyone was quite daunting to her right now. She didn't feel she was ready.

For that reason, she was forced to pretend she didn't see their crushes, despite not liking to lie.

And now Yami wanted to talk to her for a matter he considered to be of personal importance. Did he have feelings for her as well?

No. She hadn't known him very well back in Battle City, so it wasn't possible for him to like her in the same way Honda and Otogi did. Was it?

A train pulled into the station upon that thought. Traffic was never very busy around this area, so it didn't take her long to spot him. He walked casually down from the station, hands in his pockets and clearly without any luggage. This reassured her his visit wouldn't be for long. Now she just hoped that he wasn't bringing the news she dreaded he was.

She pulled herself up off her seat just in time to hear the doorbell ring, then politely invited him in.

When they were both seated opposite across the living room fire, there was an awkward silence. Neither was particularly skilled in social interaction.

Shizuka was waiting for him to bring up the subject he'd been so keen to talk about on the phone, which turned out to be a wise choice.

"You're probably wondering why I came here to talk to you," he started, not looking directly at her, a lack of his usual confidence.

She nodded mutely.

"It almost seems embarrassing to say this out loud…" he continued putting off what he wanted to say, "But the matter I want to talk with you about is one of… romance…"

This made Shizuka squeak involuntary before blurting out, "I'm sorry but I really can't-…"

"Forgive me, you're right of course," Yami cut in, "I thought that it would be best to ask you, since you know him better then anyone but-…"

It was Shizuka's turn to silence Yami now, "Him? You mean you're not talking about… Oh, I get it now. You have feelings for my brother?"

"Yes, but I understand if you don't want to talk to me about the subject, it is a little… different… for a man to have feelings for another man, after all…"

"No that's not a problem at all," she answered, feeling more confident now, "I'd be glad to help you out in anyway that I can. Though I have to as, why would you come to me? You have a lot of friends who spend more time around him then I do right now."

Acknowledging this with a nod, Yami responded, "It's true, if I wanted to know about his lifestyle, I could have easily asked Honda or Yugi, but they don't know the side of him that you do. You're closer to his emotional side; I saw that in Battle City. You truly adore him and see what an amazing person he is."

"You think my brother is an amazing person?" she asked. No one had ever understood that in the same way that she did.

"Yes, I do. When I duelled alongside him against the Labyrinth Brothers, I saw what a strong person he is. He had a willing to fight for a goal that was so important to him, even though all of his opponents on the island had an advantage against him. By the time he gave me his Red Eyes Black Dragon to lend, you could say I had developed something of a crush on him…"

"My brother is quite surprising isn't he? Even to a champion like you," she responded.

"That's another reason why I came here," he added, "Your brother can be very surprising, I can hardly predict how he's going to act most of the time. So if I was to tell him about my feelings… I can't tell how he'd respond…"

"Don't worry about that," Shizuka reassured, "My brother might be a bit of a ditz at times, but he'd never want to hurt a friend's feelings. He might not know how to react to it, but I'm sure he wouldn't outright reject you."

Getting up from her seat, she walked over to a cabinet and took out a photo album. She placed it on the floor and opened the first page to reveal pictures of Jounouchi and herself together as children.

"This is Jounouchi as I remember him," she told Yami, "It'll be easier for you to know him the way I do if I talk you through these photos."

Yami thought this was an excellent idea. The two of them spent the whole afternoon going through the album, him listening intently as she discussed what was happening on each page.

As it was time for him to leave, Shizuka felt very content. She had finally met someone who admired and respected her brother as much as she did. And it was nice for her to talk about him to someone who was willing to listen.

The train pulled away from the station, taking the other Yugi with it. At that point, the phone rang.

Answering it for the second time that day, she was faced with the more familiar voice of Jounouchi.

"Hey Shizuka, how are you doing?" he asked, pleasantly.

Smiling, she answered, "I'm fine big brother; how about you?"

"Not so good," he admitted, "Yami's been gone all day. I've been looking around for him, but he isn't anywhere…"

"Actually there's something quite interesting about him I want to tell you…" she began. While she knew her brother wouldn't reject Yami, it could never hurt to give him a helping hand.


	3. Yami no Yuugi/Seto (Duelists of the Roses)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He knew from his past that his life was a stage being set for a fairytale, and he was determined to stop that from being so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a fart joke in this chapter. It took all my willpower not to edit it out.

At a young age, the prince was sent from England to France because of the war. There, he trained for most of his life. And although his guardian, Shimon, insisted that he learn the kingly routines, he was set on becoming a soldier.

The druid was not in any position to disagree with the prince, so he let him get on with his training, thinking the phase would pass soon. He was, however, quite wrong. The prince was now seventeen and the commander of his own fleet of soldiers. Every day, he went out to fight, to try and return to the home country he was denied access to.

At least (Shimon reasoned with himself) he was well educated. As long as he'd known him, the prince had been obsessed with reading. Whenever he had a spare moment, he would sit down with a good book and absorb it's content. Surely from reading these books, he would learn how princes and kings were suppose to behave.

This was one of those moments where Prince Henry was not battling his enemies or planning an attack. As expected, he was read a book. A fairy tale to be exact. And although fairy tales were mostly violent, they still inevitably ended with the prince marrying the beautiful young maiden (or princess, this point varied, but the main plot point remained the same), defeating the villain and living happily ever after.

Contrary to what Shimon believed, this did not teach him how to behave like a proper prince, it taught him to loathe it. He knew this stereotype summed up his life exactly. He was a prince who had lost his kingdom to an impostor called Henshin, just like the princes in the fairy tales. And if his story went as the fairy tales did, he would meet a beautiful maiden (or princess, Henry mentally added), fall in love with her, defeat Henshin, get married and live happily ever after.

Sure enough, he wanted to defeat Henshin, but the other points he wasn't so sure upon. Marrying a maiden would affect his life too much, and his limited social skills reduced his chances of ever being successful with a woman. Not that being unsuccessful in that department bothered him much. Becoming king would go against his soldier lifestyle and as for living happily ever after… He couldn't think of a worse fate. To be taken away from the frill of the battle would kill him.

He poured over the pages of the book, wishing, just for once, the story wouldn't end with "happily ever after" or begin with "once upon a time"…  
  


* * *

  
Once upon a time, there was a young prince of the age of five. His name was Henry.

Henry lived a very sheltered life in the palace, being raised to the ideal and keeping away from the unwanted views of the commoners. But it began to worry his parents that he had never had much, if any, contact with a child his own age. He hadn't ever requested for the company of another child, but this just made his parents worry more that he was cut off from them and being forced to mature too soon.

So they considered a possible candidate for the prince's friend. He had to be of both high ranking and have the ability to protect the prince if need be. A high level of discipline and maturity wouldn't go amiss either, to set an example.

Many potential nobles offered their children to be the prince's companion, but one stood out among the others. A young mage with six years of age lived very close to the palace. He was well versed in many subjects, possessed intelligence seemingly beyond his years and was currently being trained in healing magic that would help the prince, should he get hurt.

This boy was called forth and ushered to the prince's room for the first time. He was a little confused at how to act around a new person of such high power and approached him with some caution.

The prince failed to notice this new arrival, as he was used to people moving around the palace with business that didn't concern him. He simply continued with the jigsaw puzzle on the floor in front of him.

After looking over his shoulder, the new boy decided to make himself known by saying, "I think that the light blue piece would go in that part of the puzzle, the sky is too dark where you're trying to put it now."

It took Henry a few seconds to comprehend that someone had spoken to him, let alone questioned his actions. He turned to face the new boy with a confused expression on his face.

"Who are you?" he asked, not adding that if he wanted the piece of the puzzle to go in the dark blue part of the sky, it would go there regardless.

It was a reasonable enough question, despite being very blunt, so the boy answered it, "My name is Seto Rosenkreuz of the royal mages."

Henry was aware of the royal mages, despite not knowing much about what they did. What this young one wanted with him was a mystery.

"And for what reason is a royal mage in my room?" he wondered aloud.

"I… I was sent here to keep you company," Seto replied honestly, hoping the prince wouldn't reject him.

Henry nodded in acknowledgement, "My parents told me that another child would be coming here, though I fear I won't be much company for you."

Seto was warned that the prince would be stubborn, and almost as well versed in his words as Seto himself.

"Perhaps we may have something in common, my prince-"

"Call me Henry. No 'my prince' or 'your highness'. And I'll call you by your name instead of 'mage' Seto Rosenkr… kr…" he cut off not knowing how to pronounce Seto's last name.

It was funny to see Henry stumble when he was trying to be smart, so Seto decided to help him out, "Rosen will be fine my pri-… Henry. Now, maybe I can help you with your puzzle."

He sat down next to the prince and the two spent the next few hours figuring out the jigsaw. At first a lot of time was wasted by Seto pointing out Henry was making mistakes, causing Henry to get frustrated, but after a while, Henry learned better as to where the pieces went and became less argumentative. By the end of the day, the puzzle was complete.

"When will you be back?" Henry questioned, trying to sound causal, despite being eager to spend more time with him.

"I shall return tomorrow, Prince Henry," said Seto, smiling.

As he left the room, a messenger, who was in a hurry to get Seto's report of the day to the king and queen, approached him.

"How did it go?" He asked.

Knowing you had to be straight to the point with these people, Seto answered, "The prince enjoys my company and I enjoy his. His anger levels are much lower already and I will be returning tomorrow."

Both parted their own way, as nothing further needed to be said.

The mage-in-training did return the next day, and the day after, and most days that followed for the rest of the year. He taught the prince many things that Henry did not know, mainly about mages and his lessons away from the palace, which the prince took an interest in. Gradually, the two became close friends and would never be seen apart from each other.

One day Henry asked Seto why his hair was so long, to which Seto answered, "It may sound strange, but long hair affects a mage's power. If my hair was short, I would not be able to perform magic as easily."

"Why?"

Seto had to scratch his head for this one and admit he honestly didn't know.

Henry smiled, and Seto feared that the prince was going to make a big thing of finding a question he didn't know the answer to, but instead the prince reached into his pocket.

He looked somewhat awkward as he removed his hand; fists clenched around two unseen objects.

Blinking up at Seto he said, "My mother was telling me about people you love. I thought love was just for parents, but she told me you could love anyone who's close to you. And… y-you see… I'm really close to you, so I wanted to get you a present be… because I love you…"

He quickly thrust out his now open hand to show two pendants that looked like roses, one red and one white.

Taken by surprise, Seto stared down at them not knowing what to say.

Worrying the prince would think he didn't like the present, he broke the silence by asking, "Are they both for me?"

"No, just the white one," Henry answered, realising he forgot to mention this, "The white one represents friendship and I love you as a friend. The red one I'll keep, so we both have one. Mother said it represents the fart."

"You mean 'the heart' Henry."

"No, no, it was definitely the fart," assured Henry, unaware of how wrong he was.

Not wanting to start an argument, Seto let the mistake slide and put the pendant around his neck.

He helped Henry with his own pendant, saying, "Thank you my prince Henry, I love you too."

That night the two parted ways feeling happy and at peace with each other, not knowing what would follow soon after…

The next morning Henry was awoke sharply by one of the nurses.

"My prince, we must go!" She urged, half lifting, half dragging him out of his bed.

Still sleepy, Henry was confused by this treatment; "What's happening?" he said.

"The palace is under attack," she responded, already walking him to the door, "Shimon said you must be taken from here immediately."

He struggled to try and get her to release him, protesting, "I cannot leave without Seto!"

She continued walking, quickening her pace as screams were heard in the distance; "Seto did not turn up to the palace this morning. He may be dead, like your father."

Henry was so stunned that he didn't fight back anymore. He didn't resist as she took him out of the palace or as he was passed onto Shimon or as he was put on a boat to France.

Seto could be dead… His father _was_ dead… There was no escaping that…  
  


* * *

  
At the current time, Henry was still reading. These memories were behind him now and his concerns lay in defeating the enemy.

A messenger ran in, it was one of the soldiers, Jou. This made Henry look up from his book.

"Henry," he called (Henry had insisted none of the men were to call him prince), "I have heard news that there has been a new army sent from England by Henshin to fight us!"

This came as no surprise; it had been a few days since Henry's men had defeated some of the weaker troops.

"Any specific details?" he asked, wanting to weigh up the enemy.

Jou sighed, knowing his commander would hate what followed, "These troops are much stronger then the others he's sent out. It appears he's finally starting to see us as a threat. And they're led by… Seto Rosenkreuz."

"What!" Henry stood up so quickly that Jou jumped, even if he was prepared for the reaction.

That made no sense at all… Even if Seto hadn't been killed, he would have still been trained as a mage. The chances of him becoming one of Henshin's soldiers were slim to none.

"What kind of hair does he have?"

The question puzzled Jou, as it seemed irrelevant, but he had to answer his superior, "His hair is short and brown, sir."

"Short…" Henry trailed off; appearing to forget Jou was there for the moment.

Taking advantage of this, Jou cut in, "You knew Rosenkreuz when you were kids didn't you? Maybe if you told him who you were-"

"Do you really want to do that?" Henry replied, firmly.

If he told Seto who he was, there would be two possible scenarios: the first being that Seto would think he was a liar and fight him even harder and the second being that Seto would believe him. In Henry's mind, if Seto believed him, the outcome would be much worse. If Seto believed him, then he would help him get back to England, defeat Henshin, marry the beautiful maiden and live happily ever after.

If this was the ending destiny had picked out for him, he was rejecting it. Seto came to him as a soldier, so Henry would fight him as a soldier.

"Forgive my harshness, Jou, but I believe Rosenkreuz would think we are trying to trick him. I have changed so much that he wouldn't recognise me or accept me."

Jou nodded, "As you say, sir."

Placing down his book, Henry went to plan his first attack. He had no time for fairy stories.


	4. Yami no Yuugi/Seto

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fifty sentences based around the Yami/Seto pairing.

1\. Motion

The motions performed when playing a new card were always over the top, but both silently felt the drama was worth it, if only to intensify the match.

2\. Cool

Kaiba had always been the definition of cool to most of the students in Domino High, but he regarded none of them as having that status, not even Yami.

3\. Young

Despite having never told Yami about the events that had happened when he was young, Kaiba was unsurprised that the spirit just seemed to know about them; he had expected as much.

4\. Last

Both of them believed they should play every game like it was their last, so when it came down to the last game, Kaiba regretted that he was not the one who would be Yami's opponent.

5\. Wrong

Yami believed that every one of Kaiba's choices was wrong, he did not know Kaiba thought exactly the same of Yami's choices.

6\. Gentle

The only time the CEO was ever gentle was when he embraced his younger brother, and sometimes Yami hoped he would be embraced by Kaiba as well, though even in their relationship, that was be unlikely to ever happen.

7\. One

Most of the people the pharaoh knew came under three categories: the friends who supported him, the worthless opponents he destroyed along the way, and the enemies who wanted to destroy him, but Kaiba didn't fall into any of those categories, as he was one in a category of his own.

8\. Thousand

Three thousand years ago, Atem had never understood High Priest Seto, and even today, Yami failed to understand the form of him represented as Kaiba.

9\. King

After obtaining Gozaburo's company, Kaiba felt he was of the rankings of a king, which was why being beaten by a true king frustrated him more then anything.

10\. Learn

In the beginning, he was a kind child, from Gozaburo he learnt to become a harsh being, and from Yami, he was starting to learn to become a kind child once more…

11\. Blur

Both on the battlefield and off it, attacks from the Blue Eyes were a deadly blur.

12\. Wait

Even if Battle City had been created solely to put Yami in his place, Kaiba could wait for the countless other battles and Noa's domination attempt to subside before taking his chance to defeat the game king.

13\. Change

They both knew the changes that had happened since the beginning had been for the better, but stepping forth into a relationship was one change neither could calculate the results of.

14\. Command

Having grown used to being surrounded by people who'd listen to his every command, the objections presented to him by Yami often tested his patience.

15\. Hold

While watching his brother laugh as he defeated the simulator using Obelisk for the first time, Mokuba knew that the other Yugi had a tight hold on his brother's sanity.

16\. Need

"I need your help" was a line Kaiba would never say to Yami, even in a situation like this, which made it lucky that Yami could almost read his mind.

17\. Vision

With the things that went on in his mind, Kaiba was glad that Pegasus no longer had the vision granted to him by the sennen eye; he was even gladder that Yami didn't.

18\. Attention

"You only beat me because you're an attention whore," Kaiba joked, but he did not find it funny when Yami said Kaiba kept coming back for the same reason.

19\. Soul

Yami's soul was such a complex structure that it consumed almost everyone who tried to tackle it, and Kaiba was determined never to let that happen to him.

20\. Picture

If put together, Kaiba knew that the King of Games and the Dancing Queen would make a perfect picture, but he could tell from the look in those eyes that, thankfully for him, Yami was not very photogenic.

21\. Fool

The pharaoh would not be taken for a fool; then he realised Kaiba had stolen his belt during their last makeout session…

22\. Mad

It only took one defeat to drive Kaiba mad, though Yami felt the countless defeats that followed amusingly helped the process.

23\. Child

Despite knowing Kaiba hadn't had much of a childhood, Yami didn't feel much sympathy, as he himself had none but the stolen memories of Yugi's childhood.

24\. Now

The only time Yami ever forgot about the past and lived for the now was when he was deeply immersed in a duel with the stubborn CEO.

25\. Shadow

He never saw the pharaoh's shadow approach him until it was too late.

26\. Goodbye

If he didn't say goodbye, then he could fool himself in to thinking it had never ended, even after Yami was gone.

27\. Hide

When he didn't want the other's company, Yami would hide in the sennen puzzle, which made things awkward to explain when Yugi found himself waking up next to Seto Kaiba.

28\. Fortune

By ill fortune, they were bound together and by good fortune, they could tolerate one another.

29\. Safe

When he was around Kaiba, there was no such thing as safe, and very few boundaries that weren't broken.

30\. Ghost

In reality, Yugi was the one who was real and Yami was just a ghost, but Kaiba only saw the ghost and never the flesh.

31\. Book

The dragon read books of facts that were too complicated for the pharaoh to understand, and the pharaoh read books of fiction that were too complicated for the dragon to understand.

32\. Eye

Whenever he felt Yami's eye was starting to see the weaker side of him, Kaiba would remain in his office for long periods of time to cut himself off from him.

33\. Never

He would never go to the Kame Game store to challenge Yami informally, his pride would only let him battle the other in a tournament, despite how desperately his heart wanted to defeat him.

34\. Sing

It amused him to discover that while the pharaoh had many talents, he could not sing to save his life.

35\. Sudden

Although the realisation upon what his obsession with Yami truly meant was not sudden, to find out that the pharaoh had similar feelings in return was.

36\. Stop

It didn't matter who tried to take over the world or how many times his friends needed to be saved, Yami knew that his rivalry with Kaiba was one thing that was constant and would never stop.

37\. Time

Even though he was uncertain as to how much time they had left, for the moment he had Yami to himself, and that time would not be wasted on thoughts of the future.

38\. Wash

Nothing could wash away the shame Kaiba had from losing to Yami, but the pharaoh would try all the same.

39\. Torn

Yami knew it was wrong to be torn between his friends and his relationship with Kaiba, but he couldn't bring himself to make a firm decision.

40\. History

The history of their rivalry was well known, in both ancient Egypt and modern Japan, but the history of their romance was something unknown to both the public and anyone other then themselves.

41\. Power

"To have power is not to be strong;" Just when he thought he was starting to enjoy Yami's company, another line like that would be thrown into the equation.

42\. Bother

To bother Kaiba in his office was like signing a death sentence, but Yami needed to tell him this right away, regardless of the consequences.

43\. God

Though a pharaoh was supposed to represent a god in the culture he came, from during their rough romance he was glad Kaiba didn't treat him like one.

44\. Wall

Yami found it impossible to build up the wall of trust between them without Kaiba knocking it down for his own amusement.

45\. Naked

It slightly annoyed Kaiba that Yami would wear his shirt and belts so loosely when he himself made sure all of the clothes he wore were secured so well that no one would ever see him naked…

46\. Drive

By riding a horse, Yami hid the fact that he could not drive; by placing him behind the wheel of a car, Kaiba took great pleasure in exposing another one of the pharaoh's few weaknesses.

47\. Harm

Yami knew that he was on the right track, because Kaiba would not keep him around if he caused more harm than he did help.

48\. Precious

Those rare moments when he could get Yami away from his gang of friends and have him to himself were always considered precious.

49\. Hunger

One always hungered for any sign of affection from the other, and when that hunger was fed, they both felt satisfied yet guilty for giving in to it.

50\. Believe

"I believe in just three things," Kaiba told Yami as they sat in front of the TV watching, the doctor tell an image of Satan what he believed in, and he found it entertaining that Yami spent more time puzzling over this sentence than he did the plot of the episode.


	5. Honda/Anzu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Perhaps in some departments Honda was smarter then Anzu gave him credit for.

Domino was always hit heavy by snow. Luckily, this year the worst of it was over during the night, leaving a beautiful sheet of powdered snow the next morning.

Honda Hiroto trumped through the snow, thinking quietly to himself. It was the holidays but he'd made no plans with his friends, so there wasn't much for him to do today.

As was usual for this time of year, children were playing in the snow in all over Domino. He was lucky to find a quiet patch at the park to himself. Not that he minded the children's games. In fact Honda quite missed playing in the snow himself. It was a shame he was too old for that now…

Wait, when did he get too old for playing in the snow? He was only seventeen, not really that old at all. Did he really just stop acting like a child one day?

The thought of that made him feel a bit sad. He had been so busy with his new life since he'd left bullying that he'd forgotten about his childhood…

Then again, there was no one around right now.

If he were to just build a snowman or throw a snowball, nobody would have to know about it.

But snowmen take time to make and snowball fights weren't fun if there was no one to actually fight with…

There were always snow angels. He'd thought of them as being kind of girly when he was younger, but they were quick to make…

In a few minutes, he was lying on his back in the snow, sweeping his arms and legs from side to side to create his angel.

This was so much fun!

He'd never felt so great in years. Maybe the kids did have the right idea…

"What are you doing?"

Honda quickly scrambled up from the ground, embarrassed that he'd been caught.

He would have to think fast for a good excuse but nothing came to him; "I was just ah… Anzu?"

His female friend was giving him a quizzical look.

"I was just making a…"

"…A snow angel?" she finished.

He felt a little defensive and wanted to argue his position, "We've all been so busy with all the 'fate of the world' stuff that we've forgotten our childhoods! I was trying to get mine back!"

"Using snow angels?" Anzu asked, looking a little amused.

"Yeah well…" he trailed off, unable to think of a suitable comeback; so when one didn't come he remarked, "…You know, I never really saw how these things looked like angels anyway…"

They both looked down at the snow shape he'd created.

"It's pretty easy see, the lines you make with your arms are like its sleeves," she said, motioning towards the shapes, "And the lines you make with your legs form its dress."

"What happens if it's a guy angel?"

"Honda!"

"Well it could be."

"I think the guy angels wear dresses too," she finished.

Thoughtfully, Honda glanced over at her and said, "You could learn something from them you know."

"What's that?" she asked, warningly.

He looked down at the snow, not entirely sure this was the right thing to say, "Well, you always wear skirts all the time. I've never seen you wear dresses or trousers at all. Surely it must get cold during the winter."

Anzu blushed and quickly glanced in another direction.

"It's not that I don't get cold… It's just that I like dressing this way and I'm not sure how I'd look in anything else…" she reasoned, more with herself then him.

Worried that he'd upset her, Honda quickly added, "They do look nice on you. Its just that maybe you should try to dress more for protection sometimes if its snowing or raining. That's what I do."

She looked up at him again. Honda's clothes were very brown. He was donning his old lengthy jacket and similarly casual trousers. In the world of fashion, Honda wasn't top of many charts.

"Yeah," she agreed, "Maybe I should dress more like you when it's cold."

This stunned Honda a little. He was used to Anzu being the smart one who won the arguments and here she was agreeing with him. He exactly didn't feel like rubbing this point in, though.

"If you're cold, you could borrow my jacket for a while, until we get to the game shop," he offered politely.

She nodded softly; "If you don't mind, that would be nice."

As Honda slipped off his jacket and placed it over her shoulders, Anzu thought to herself, _perhaps he is smarter then I give him credit for…_

"I would let you borrow my pants to keep your legs warm, but I think I need those."

Then again…


	6. Yami no Yuugi/Seto (Season 0)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before he can run a company, Kaiba needs to prove he can run the lives of others, namely through Duel Monsters. But there’s always one who stands in the way…

"Explain to me why this is necessary. I'm already enrolled in the finest universities that the country has to offer, yet somehow you feel the need to place me in a common school that has no chance of benefiting my education."

Seto Kaiba did not beat around the bush when confronting his stepfather on matters like these.

The current CEO of Kaiba Corp sighed with obvious annoyance, before answering, "This has nothing to do with your education, Seto, this is a test. Although the time when my company gets passed down to you is far from near, I must first see how you can handle controlling people. Using my own employees would be useless, as they already listen to your commands, so you shall be placed in a school of unsuspecting students. If you are up to the challenge, you shall take control of those students by whatever means necessary within three weeks."

Kaiba nodded to show he acknowledged Gozaburo's words, already running through a variety of methods in his mind to see which was the most achievable.

Once Gozaburo concluded that the conversation was over, he turned to continue his work and Kaiba left the room. There was no formality between them beyond what was necessary.

The task at hand wasn't all that difficult. Teenagers were like sheep anyway, they would follow anyone they considered "cool" enough or who could strike enough fear into them.

Even if a shallow nerd like Kaiba could never be considered cool to the brainless mass of Domino High, he knew he could use his forces to command respect in the student underworld.

It was by chance advantage that many of the students were into the Duel Monsters game, which was generally considered the "in thing" around the school. Kaiba was well known as the international champion for the game and understanding how precious a person's favourite card could be meant he knew how easily that person could be controlled if you take said card from them. And how much they would fear you if you decided to keep it or damage it.

Perhaps a little underhanded, but three weeks wasn't a lot of time, so he had to make do with what he had. If anything, it helped increase the amount of cards he had in his possession.

It also helped that most of his crimes were blamed on a so-called psychopath who had apparently been sending many locals into a state of mental trauma. No one who knew the truth about the stolen cards would dare tell.

His one problem presented itself in the form of an abnormally small boy and his gang of followers. For some reason, they insisted on becoming friends with him and at the time, it seemed inconvenient to convince them otherwise. However, it was unsurprising that two of the boy's gang became angered by his superiority. The blonde one disliked Kaiba because of his higher social standard and the cleaner disliked Kaiba because the girl he liked had decided she thought Kaiba was better looking than him.

These were issues that Kaiba couldn't care less about, but he decided to put them both in their place anyway, especially when they accused him of stealing the Blue Eyes White Dragon card.

Even if it was true that he stole it.

He watched mercilessly as his men beat them up, and then he continued to watch as the boy, Yugi, came to help them. Apparently Yugi thought if he let Kaiba steal the card, then his conscience would make him give it back. That theory just saw him get beaten up like his two friends.

Once the show was finished, Kaiba left to attend to more important matters, taking the prize of the Blue Eyes with him. But as he moved to get into the limo, he felt the gaze of a person upon him.

Yugi.

No, that wasn't possible. Yugi was left beaten up on the roof of the school building, so he couldn't be here now. But this was him, very few people had tri-coloured spiky hair like his. Though there was something very different about him…

This Yugi had an air of confidence around him, and eyes that were very narrow, almost sinister…

He glanced around quickly for the other two, but they were nowhere in sight. This Yugi must have left them on the roof. For him, that seemed quite out of character…

"Kaiba," said the other Yugi, his voice was different the one he'd heard before, "You have done wrong. And now your mind must be punished."

"Mind must be punished? What is this?!" Kaiba demanded, determined to reach the bottom of this situation, even if the calm way the other had said that statement had scared him slightly.

The other Yugi smirked, an expression that Kaiba was, at the moment, unaware he'd be faced with for years to come, and answered, "I challenge you to a duel. Of the kind you've never experienced before."

Kaiba doubted that, he'd seen almost everything in duelling, but he couldn't pass up a challenge.

"Fine," he replied, "I accept."

It wasn't difficult for them to find an empty classroom to play the duel in. The school was always empty at night, as the lazy janitor left the student committee to do the cleaning.

A duelling board was quickly set up on the table and each shuffled their decks before starting.

The other Yugi's face was still calm and slightly amused. It scared Kaiba more than he'd admit to think it was possible that Yugi already knew the outcome of the match. But in duelling, nothing was final.

He played his first card, a powerful Battle Ox that would be difficult for the other Yugi to take down.

As the card sat on the field, the air changed immensely. Thick smoke raised from the card giving the impression to could be on fire before a giant Battle Ox emerged from it.

This couldn't be. The cards were not real creatures and there was no kind of electronics in the duelling board. But there stood the Battle Ox, who not only looked solid enough, but also smelled what Kaiba presumed a real Ox would smell like.

"There's one thing I forgot to mention," drawled the other Yugi, watching Kaiba's shock with affectionate amusement, "This is a Yami no Game."

Yami no Game… a game of darkness? This must have been what he'd meant when he said this duel was different. How had this Yugi created these illusions? Kaiba wondered. This is a darker Yugi… a Yami no Yugi?

Without realising it, Kaiba was on his feet. And he was grinning like a mad man.

"Yugi, this is exactly the kind of duelling experience I've been searching for," he exclaimed loudly.

Yami Yugi was thrilled to find someone who wasn't scared of his shadow magic. The absence of fear would make it easier to have a more serious duel. If Kaiba wanted to see more, then there would be plenty of opportunities before the night was through.

He looked at the cards in his hand after drawing from his deck. True, he didn't have anything strong enough to defeat the Battle Ox right now, but that didn't mean he couldn't defend against it.

As he lay down the Mystic Elf in defence mode, the creature emerged from the card. Every detail about her was so real it couldn't possibly be an illusion. Her blue skin was smoother then that of any human, her hair lay completely flat against the back of her head and, as she chanted, her voice soothed in a way that almost lulled Kaiba into a false sense of security.

But any true duellist knew it was impossible to win on defence alone. By equipping the Battle Ox with a magic card, he'd be able to take down Yami's creature easily.

The Black Pendant he played appeared around his beast's neck, as he predicted the shadow magic would allow it to do, and he wasted no time in attacking.

As the axe soared through the Mystic Elf, she died with a scream that could pierce the heart of anyone who heard it, before exploding with another wave of smoke.

It suddenly dawned on him that the rumours of delusions seen by some locals may have originated from this very being.

"You do realise your reputation Yugi?" he questioned, "The police are after you, the families of those you've damaged want you brought to justice and I'm sure when your victims have recovered, they'll want a piece of you, too. In short, everybody wants you."

A grin and the red eyes flashed.

"But do you want me, Kaiba?"

The genius failed to understand the question.

Without waiting for an answer, Yami drew his next card. The trap card, Shadow Spell, bound the Battle Ox in its chains and reduced its attack points. Making it easy for the Great Shark that Yami summoned to destroy the beast.

All of the cards in Kaiba's hand were magic and trap cards, which would be useless without a monster to play. He couldn't leave himself vulnerable to Yami, so it was vital he drew a monster.

There was one monster he'd be sure to win with. The Blue Eyes White Dragon card was almost unbeatable, and he had it in his pocket.

Before drawing, he casually slipped his hand into his pocket and placed it flat on his palm. He then moved it to the top of his deck and pretended to draw it.

Yami watched him with content interest. It surprised him that Yami didn't notice his trick, perhaps he was less in control than what he'd lead Kaiba to believe? Those eyes suggested otherwise, though.

"With me, I have the card that will only lead to your defeat. You do realise that?" Kaiba asked, filled with confidence.

"I wonder if you dare play it," Yami mused aloud, knowing this would draw Kaiba closer to the move that would make him lose.

He wouldn't let anyone question his bravery! Let him be known as a thief and let him be trapped in these dark games like Yami's other victims, but do not let him, Seto Kaiba, be known as a coward!

He held the card dramatically, swiftly flicking it over to show the beast and said, "I call forth the Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

This creature did not appear from a cloud of smoke like the others. A star shaped ritual circle formed in the air, from which the dragon emerged in all its glory.

"Can you face this beast, Yugi? Can you or your illusions stop it?" he called, knowing it was hopeless.

Yami stared deep into the dragon's eyes. The creature may not have been used much for battle, but it had served Yugi's grandpa for years, safely hidden in its little box, comfortingly reminding him of a far away friend. And now it was set against the descendant of its master. Those eyes were filled with sorrow.

Silently, Yami passed on the message that it didn't have to be this way. If the dragon really cared about Sugoroku, it could help his grandson in this time of need.

"Blue Eyes White Dragon! Attack his monster to end this duel!" Kaiba screeched, excited to have won against the magic that had reduced so many others to nothing.

But the dragon did not attack. It knew it was not Kaiba's to command and it never would be. The smoke drew around it, ripping the dragon apart and sending it to the grave.

"Do you realise that dragon would rather be dead than serve you?" Yami questioned, drawing his next card, "And now the door of darkness has been opened."

The soon-to-be CEO failed to understand the last statement, but he knew from that expression, it was over for him.

In the form of the Summoned Skull, Yami decided to end this for Kaiba. With no monsters on the field, he was powerless to defend himself, so the direct attack would wipe him out.

As the lightning blast hit his life points, Kaiba fell to the floor, swearing he could feel the pain of the blow.

Before he knew it, Yami was beside him. But he was not there to help him up.

"You have caused pain and suffering to everyone who surrounds you, Kaiba. And you will carry on causing it, because, unless you stop, that's all that's left for you."

He knelt down, musing the ways in which he could damage Kaiba's mind, but then he saw something.

Fear.

Fear was nothing new to his victims. They had all cowered in it before losing their sanity, but Kaiba's fear was an almost child-like one, showing he was not a corrupted maniac like most of Yami's victims, but a misguided youth who needed to be led on the right trail.

Perhaps there was hope for him. Or perhaps he was just going soft, a nagging voice inside of him commented.

He softly pushed Kaiba's face up to be level with his and smiled in a way that was not sinister. Then he pressed his lips against Kaiba's, drawing him into a gesture that neither of them had experience in this life.

The Yami no Yugi's lips were warm, and Kaiba let them penetrate his guard for a while, before roughly shoving the other in the chest.

Yami fell backwards, genuinely surprised by Kaiba's actions.

"I will not let you have my title, Yugi," Kaiba spat, "But now is not the time to get it back."

Using a powdered smoke bomb, Kaiba managed to mask his exit, leaving Yami standing there, quite unfazed.

Perhaps it was soft of him to let Kaiba go, but he wanted the challenge to stay. As they said, the chase was better then the catch.


	7. Dartz/Pegasus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Upon his search for a way to resurrect Cynthia, his dead fiancée, Pegasus has a chance meeting with a mysterious man who may be more dangerous then he seems…

"This boat is taking quite sometime…" Pouted Pegasus. He stood on the edge of a cruise ship, thoughtfully staring out across the sea.

Most of the people on this boat were here for the cruise; it didn't matter how long it took, as long as they had time to relax and be with their loved ones. But Pegasus wasn't here to be with his loved one. The problem was that he wasn't with his loved one. His fiancée, Cynthia, had died a year ago and since then, his depression had driven him to find a way to bring her back.

Most people would call him crazy, and even he was starting to lose hope. He sighed at the ship's speed and took a walk into the games room. Perhaps something there would help pass the time.

Instead of joining in, he sat back on one of the chairs to watch the gamblers at play. Expensively dressed men and women of high standards were gathered around the tables, joking with each other and betting money like it was no big deal. After a while, these kinds of people all look the same.

One person, however, did manage to catch his attention. A man with flowing aqua green hair, who was gambling with the others. Only it didn't look like he was participating as much as observing the other people in the area, as if he was looking at something. His dress sense suggested he wasn't from around here.

Pegasus couldn't resist getting a closer look at him; he approached the table and placed a bet himself, purposely standing close to the man.

"It looks like you don't want to win, placing a bet like that," the man commented, without even looking in his direction.

Pegasus watched the table to keep his eyes off the man and answered, "I have money to spare." Technically this wasn't a lie, but in truth, he just wasn't paying attention to the bet.

"Don't we all?" answered the man, clearly unimpressed, though he did glance over in Pegasus's direction.

He couldn't help but look up at the man now. Two tone eyes? Not unheard of, but still odd enough to attract attention. There seemed something strange about him that Pegasus couldn't put his finger on.

The stranger held out his hand and said, "My name is Dartz, and you are…?"

"Pegasus Crawford, of Industrial Illusions," he answered, taking Dartz hand and shaking it.

Dartz observed him for a moment after hearing the company name, before saying, "Ah yes. I remember your father, a very noble man. You look nothing like him."

This comment was unexpected. Usually people say how much a child looks like their parents, not that they weren't like them at all. But he really didn't mind. His father was a very stern person known for his narrow-minded views, and Pegasus wanted to be the opposite of that if he could help it.

Sensing he'd hit a good compliment, Dartz continued, "Just from looking at you, I can tell you have much more depth then he ever did."

"Well… I'm not one to brag," Pegasus started, liking the attention, "But many of my clients say I have a unique vision. I'm an artist you see."

In response, Dartz nodded and said, "I could tell just by looking at you. Your air suggests you see the world in a way other men could not. I, myself, am a bit of an artist. Perhaps I could show you some of my work when we reach our destination."

Pegasus brightened at the prospect of having someone on his level to talk to and blurted, "I… I'd like that."

"Do you have any of your work you could show me now?" questioned Dartz, knowing that in any person's language, the most important person was himself, thus making it vital to keep the conversation on Pegasus.

"Why yes, I have some with me in my cabin," Pegasus replied, "We could go see them now if you like."

"I'd like that very much," was the answer. Unseen to Pegasus, Dartz grinned in a way that wasn't quite sane.

When they reached the room, Pegasus showed all of his work to his new acquaintance. Which wasn't difficult, considering they were piled all over the place.

"These ones are all quite old," he said, "I just carry them around for inspiration. Unfortunately, inspiration hasn't come to me for a while…"

Dartz looked at them with fascination. This man was talented, and those who were creative had the most powerful souls…

"They're fine," he answered to Pegasus, "Even if they are old, they show a great potential. Though many of them seem to be focused around this one girl. Who is she?"

At the mention of her, Pegasus's heart sank once more. He had put her out of his mind for the short time since he'd been talking to Dartz, but now the pain crept back up on him.

But he couldn't leave Dartz unanswered, so he responded, "That's Cynthia, my late fiancée. She's the reason that I'm here actually…"

No. It would be mad to tell him about that. Dartz would never see the meaning of his quest.

Dartz understood, however; "You're looking for a way to bring her back to life, aren't you?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"Why… yes. How could you tell?" a dumbfounded Pegasus questioned.

Smiling sweetly, Dartz looked him directly in the eyes and said, "I said before, you have a vision other men don't. You can see that there might be ways men don't understand and would go to any means to seek them out."

"So you don't think I'm crazy?"

"No, quite the opposite. And I may be able to help you."

As he followed Dartz down the corridor, his mind was racing. This was what he'd been looking for. Someone who had the power to let him see his love again. Given he didn't expect to find that person on a cruise ship, but the surprise made it all the more worthwhile.

When they reached Dartz's cabin, although in silence, Pegasus could have been walking on air. He didn't care how dark it was when he walked in. And for those first few moments, he didn't notice the hollow sound his feet made as they stepped on old stone.

Dartz closed the door after he came in, leaving the room in complete darkness, until the many surrounding candles automatically lit themselves.

The effect was chilling. Suddenly, all of the massive stone room was lit in a dim orange glow. Walls upon walls of stone tablets, containing images of people frozen in fear, faced them. The tablets were placed on top of each other and even spread along the floor. The faces of their subjects couldn't be more lifelike if they tried.

He turned to face Pegasus, thinking this was the point where everyone who entered the room became terrified, knowing their fate. But Pegasus didn't look scared at all; he was glancing around with the face of a child who has found Santa's grotto.

"Are those people's souls," he wondered aloud.

Interested by Pegasus's lacking fear in this knowledge, Dartz answered, "Yes, they are. I have thousands of souls in here."

At this, Pegasus clutched onto one of Dartz's sleeve, "Is Cynthia's soul here?" he desperately asked.

"Perhaps it is," he said, "We can see." With that, he walked across the room.

Pegasus followed him loyally, looking through all of the souls for any sign of her. But alas, she was nowhere in sight… He didn't doubt Dartz would lead him to her, though.

"Do you like my art, by the way?" Dartz questioned as they walked.

"Yes, of course I do," Pegasus responded, "It's far more amazing than the art of any normal man."

When they reached one particular tablet, Dartz stopped standing in front of it to block Pegasus's view.

Automatically, Pegasus tried to glance around him, but was disappointed to see that the outline of the figure was definitely male, even if he couldn't see the details.

He shook his head, downcast, and said, "No. This isn't her soul…"

"But this is the soul I wanted to show you," said Dartz, stepping to a side so Pegasus could take a closer look.

The tablet showed a high-class man wearing a suit who, even in his terror, looked plain and shallow.

"That… that's my father!" gasped Pegasus, "No, no, you can keep his soul. It's quite all right. I just want to find the soul of Cynthia."

"Her soul is not here."

"What! But you said!" Pegasus blurted.

Dartz smiled darkly and said, "I've been playing you for a fool along. These aren't the souls of every person who has ever died, these are the souls that I've stolen from people myself, and I've never taken the soul of your partner. I only want strong souls to feed the leviathan."

"Then why did you take my father's weak soul?" Pegasus demanded, almost unable to stop the tears of his crushed hopes.

"That was a business decision," answered Dartz, "If I feel another company is starting to get too uppity, I simply steal the soul of its director. So in a way, you have me to thank that you even own that company of yours."

He walked towards Pegasus and grabbed hold of him, pinning him roughly against the tablet of his father.

"Keep away from me you… man-eater!" snapped Pegasus.

"Soul-eater," Corrected Dartz, entertained by his child-like panic.

He struggled. Now knowing that Dartz wanted his soul to add to the collection.

Dartz ran his hand down Pegasus's long white hair to try and calm him.

"You should relax, it'll only hurt for a second…" with that he pressed his lips against Pegasus's softly.

Panicking and mistakenly believing this was how Dartz removed someone's soul, Pegasus pushed the other off him with much force and ran for the door.

Surprisingly, Dartz let him go.

He watched him leave, thinking, "He's too good for that. At least for the moment. But you can guarantee I'll catch up with you, Pegasus…"

After leaving the room, Pegasus ran and did not stop until he reached his cabin. He doubled over, sobbing and choking from lack of breath. If he never saw that creature again, he'd be happy…

But a few days later, he couldn't stop himself from wanting to see Dartz again. He made his way back to the door of Dartz's cabin, somewhere he'd been avoiding since his last encounter.

He turned the handle and found the door opened easily. Inside he saw a room that looked identical to his own, and to every other room on the ship. There were no stone tablets containing people's soul or ancient candles, just a plain room.

Dartz must have slipped through his fingers. Crestfallen, he returned to his own room to sit amongst the heaps of his old paintings.

Why did it hurt so badly? Was it because Dartz had tricked him? But even outside of that there was pain.

He looked at one of his many portraits of Cynthia. It was the same kind of pain he'd learnt to associate with her…

But no, it couldn't be. He'd only known Dartz for a very short time. He couldn't feel that way about him.

Even now, as an artist, he could remember every detail of Cynthia's appearance without having to look at a photo when he wanted to paint her. And now he could remember Dartz's appearance in exactly the same way.

But he would never paint Dartz like he painted Cynthia. He did not love Dartz. He knew he didn't. Or at least, he thought he did…


	8. Anzu/Shizuka

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A distraught Anzu compares the lives of people to shells on a beach.

Shells.

The beauty of shells.

The vividly different patterns on each beautiful shell.

The swirl of those vivid colours as the beautiful shells spiralled around you.

The pain you feel when those many shells scrape against you, scratching your skin.

The realisation that you are no longer on the beach looking at pretty shells, but are drowning in the ocean, forced further to the depths by those hurtful shells.

Anzu lay curled up on the beach, refusing to let herself sob for any reason so pathetic. She clutched at the sand beneath her as the not-so-comforting thought ran through her mind that the grains of sand were once part of the rocks and the shells. Over thousands of years, they had knocked together in the drowning ocean and the sand was the cast-off grain that had not been tough enough to last in the torrent.

Having said that, it was quite suitable that she was here with the sand, she felt. For the sand's current function in her mind was to represent the failed lives of human beings: those who had not been strong enough to last in the real world, as she had not been.

She noted that there was a lot more sand than there were shells. But this was to be expected. In life, there were so many failed hopes and dreams that lay on the ground to hold up the successful few.

And that was what the shells represented: those who had succeeded in life. Those strong characters that pushed forward and didn't care who got hurt, as long as they stayed on top.

Anzu knew too many shells. In some ways, it was an honour to know such strong personalities and that they'd allowed her to be alongside them for so long. It certainly didn't mean they were bad people at heart. And she had tried so hard to be strong like them, to strive like them, to achieve her dreams like they had; but in the end, she just wasn't good enough to be with them.

So now she was back in her mental whirlpool. Watching the shells fly all around her. Nothing could rid the sand of shells.

"Anzu?"

Her eyes snapped open sharply.

Had she even been awake through any of that?

She pulled herself up to a sitting position, trying to shake off the disorientation. She focused her vision on the person in front of her and was greeted by the worried face of Shizuka.

This in itself was not too uncommon. Shizuka was the kind of person who worried about you. Many of her friends had been faced with those shining, worried eyes when they were surrounded by troubles. But that's what she liked about Shizuka: the care was genuine. When she worried, it came straight from the heart. And the amount of time she spent worrying showed exactly how large that heart was.

"Are you all right?" Shizuka asked.

Anzu nodded. You really felt bad about lying to that face, but there were some things you just couldn't tell her. She was so innocent that you didn't want to hurt her with your problems. She was so fragile. Like… a shell.

Not like those shells that ruled the sand, but a singular shell. One that could easily break, even as you held it in your hand. A shell like that needed protection. It was a rare treasure that you would want to take home with you and put on a high shelf, where it could be admired and kept safe from harm.

She knew she had an important friend in Shizuka. Shizuka was her treasured shell, unlike any of the other shells. Anzu saw herself subconsciously lean forward and hug Shizuka, pulling the other girl close to her. She could sense in the air that Shizuka did not understand what was going on, but neither did she pull back. So Anzu held her close. Keeping the gentle beauty of the single shell away from the whirlpool.


	9. Honda/Jounouchi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As his best friend, Honda would always be there for Jounouchi, even if that meant having to share a house with him.

It was 4:00am.

It was 4:00am and raining.

And normally 4:00am would be considered a very early time for someone to get up, but in this particular case, 4:00am was considered the point of time when Honda came to terms with that being the end of any chance he would have of getting to sleep that night. It could hardly even be considered night anymore.

This would have been easier to accept, had it not been dark outside and, as he'd noted before, raining heavily. These facts were difficult to avoid when his front door was wide open. The darkness spread all around and the patter of the rain was very loud.

It could be considered a longing to just close the door, blocking out the rain and go climb into bed, so he could catch up with the sleep he had failed to get that night. But this would not happen. Because when a friend needs you, sleep can wait. And a friend needed him right now.

Jounouchi was stood at the doorway, not for the first time that night. He was hunched over and panting. Honda half suspected he'd run most of the way here. Each of his hands contained a suitcase, both full to the bursting and messily packed. The suitcases looked worn, much like their owner did right now.

It was true Honda had seen Jounouchi beaten up before. Back when they were two bullies together, Jounouchi got beaten up all the time. When Yugi had saved them from Ushio, they'd both got hurt pretty badly… But that had been from other bullies and other thugs. You expected them to do that. You didn't expect someone's own family to do that…

Not that he thought Jounouchi was entirely innocent by any stretch. There was no doubt that there had been blows either way that night. But they needed to come to terms with the fact that things weren't ever going to work for them.

And Jounouchi had come to terms with that.

The first time he'd come to Honda's house that night he'd been ranting and raving, barging around, trying very hard to control his anger, but obviously failing. Honda didn't interrupt him until he was finished, he knew Jounouchi needed to vent. He knew that if he stopped him from venting, then it'd just come out later and maybe it'd be Yugi or Anzu who had to see this side of him. Honda didn't want that. He knew Jounouchi. It was best that he dealt with it.

When he'd stopped shouting, he'd slumped down in one of the chairs, staring at the floor and not even acknowledging that Honda was there. By this time, he didn't even acknowledge that he was a guest in Honda's home. The apartment Honda lived in had long since become a refuge where Jounouchi would come when things with his father got too bad. Many a time, Honda would return home from school to find Jounouchi already there, sitting in the same chair, filled with hatred for the same man.

It didn't bother Honda really. He was used to people being there. Coming from a large family, people had always been around when he was growing up and once he moved into a house of his own, it felt lonely without someone else to keep him company. And Jounouchi was company, even when he was just sitting there, filled with anger, refusing to talk at all.

Though that night, Honda had got him to talk. He expressed his views about how he felt things would never get better between Jounouchi and his father, he expressed that he felt Jounouchi had changed from the thug he used to be, but staying in that house just chained him to the part of his life he wanted to leave behind, and surprisingly enough, Jounouchi had listened to him.

Then he had got up out of the chair and walked out of the door. He muttered something about coming back, though Honda already knew this. He had no doubt in his mind that, when Jounouchi agreed to move out of his father's house, it would be here he came to. There didn't need to be anything said about that, the agreement went unspoken.

So he'd waited. And waited. And at one point he'd considered going to find Jounouchi to see if he needed help, but he knew that business between him and his father was strictly something the group were not allowed to get involved in. That was an unspoken agreement, too. So he waited some more.

And now it was 4:00am and Jounouchi was standing on his doorstep, dripping wet and carrying these suitcases.

Honda moved aside to let him through. The solemn face of his friend was not ready for conversation yet.

The suitcases were dropped down on either side of the hallway. Jounouchi then ran angry fingers through the strands of his hair. He was soaked. Hopefully in those suitcases was a change of clothes, because he'd certainly need one…

For the first time that night, Jounouchi met Honda's gaze. The eyes were still blank. He certainly wouldn't get over this anytime soon. When he got this angry, sometimes it'd take days for him to calm down. Then he'd become the happy, smiling, slightly goofy Jounouchi who they all liked to see. It didn't take much observing to know that Jounouchi was happiest while he was out saving the world, far away from his dad.

But right now, he was faced with the ugly side of Jounouchi. The side only he could deal with, because no one else knew Jounouchi like he did.

They stared for a few moments, then the rain-covered boy decided he'd be the first to talk, "…He wasn't glad to see me go."

"I can imagine."

It was good that Jounouchi had spoken, that meant it was all right for Honda to try and communicate with him without being blatantly ignored.

"He should have seen it coming…" Jounouchi went on, "I wouldn't look after him forever. Maybe now he'll pull himself out of that chair and get to work himself…"

"It'll be better for both of you," Honda agreed.

That was as much of an exchange as he'd get for now. There was no thanks for allowing him to stay here, there didn't need to be. When you were as good of friends as Honda and Jounouchi were, looking out for each other was just expected. They might have taken each other for granted in that sense, but it worked.

Honda moved the suitcases to the spare room, where Jounouchi would be staying, not for the first time. It shouldn't be called a spare room anymore; it was Jounouchi's room now. And it would probably be that way for a long time.

He'd expected to find Jounouchi slumped back on his chair as he came back out of the room, but he wasn't. There was the sound of a kettle clicking from the kitchen and water being poured out. A few minutes later, his friend walked out carrying two cups in his hands, putting them roughly down on the coffee table as he reached it.

This was the first time Jounouchi had done something like that. It was almost an acknowledgement that he was a resident in this house now, not a guest, and would act that way from now on.

At that moment, Honda realised that Jounouchi was more than a friend now. He was family. He was a part of his life that would always be there, just like his mother, his father and all of his siblings. In a way, he was more than even them, because he was always there, while they were not. And if the two of them lived together for the rest of their lives, then Honda might well be okay with that.


	10. Amane & Ryou

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amane was always more outgoing than Ryou was. Sometimes he felt that the girl knew no fear.

It was to be said that quaint little villages out in the middle of the countryside, cut off from civilisation, were a thing of the past. It would be considered cliché to think of a village fitting that description to have an old, homely manor belonging to a wealthy family who had been there for generations. And even worse to imagine it near a rickety old church, loved by the people, but decayed from age.

The thing about these quaint little villages was that they didn't change much with time. People may consider them to be mostly fictional, but that was because they'd only heard about them in books, they didn't see them with their own eyes. However, Amane did see this village with her own eyes. She was a young girl and had never known anything other than this village. To her, the manor was a home and the church was part of the scenery.

…Although not so much part of the scenery at the moment, but home to something that she considered to be very important. This something was an owl. She knew there was one there, because she'd heard it hooting at night. It always made scary stories seem just that bit scarier.

Though she wasn't interested in the owl because of some tale of ghosts that children told. The reason she wanted to see the owl was much more practical.

Her class was doing a project to do with nature. She was barely out of the first year, so around this time, the teachers chose to give their students generic projects that would be easy for them to do and encourage them to go outside. Nature was a favourite topic of theirs, it meant that the students could collect leaves from the garden or draw pictures of fluffy animals – really not much work was expected of them.

But just doing what all the other children were doing did not satisfy Amane; she wanted to go that one step further. In her hands she held a large, clunky-looking camera. It was her father's and she had taken it without asking. She didn't know much about cameras, but she thought she'd heard her dad refer to it as… a polaroid, was it? She wasn't really sure. All she knew was that when he took photos with it, a little frame with a black box inside would come out and, after a while, the picture would appear. She was very proud of it; no one else had a camera like that.

…She did want to get it back to him before she got into any trouble for taking it, though.

After looking up at the church for a few moments, she pushed the heavy door open and walked inside. It was empty, even the vicar wasn't around at this time of day. She walked inside, looking around from the tall ceiling to the colourfully decorated windows. Amane had always loved coming here; it was so unlike any of the other buildings in the village. Although the manor was probably a bit bigger than the church, there was just something about the presence of being here that made her feel in awe of it.

However, she knew right now that what she should be looking at was the alter at the back. The ceiling was much lower there. She thought the owl would probably have made its nest higher up, but if she was lucky she might just see it there.

The rafters were too tall for her to reach though, even back there. The only way up was to stand on the large cushion by the alter and pull herself onto a diagonal beam that connected to the rafters higher up. She didn't think to be scared of what she was doing; why was there any reason to be scared of such a place?

Someone, however, was scared for her. A girl who knew no fear needed an older brother who would fear on her behalf. Ryou Bakura was that older brother.

He was known for being a responsible boy, despite his short years. Responsible boys tended to notice when their younger sisters went away for more than half an hour.

Ryou had trailed around the village for a while now and was getting more nervous by the moment. He'd called on several of the other children from her class, but none of them had seen her. They all just answered the door with blank faces, handheld games consoles in their fists – the school project forgotten. Ryou blamed himself, really. They were all so used to him being overprotective of Amane that they probably weren't taking him seriously anymore.

The church hadn't even crossed his mind until he was heading back out of the village. He looked at it from the gate for a moment, then decided that he'd tried everywhere else, so this place was worth a look too. Even though the church was open to the public, he felt bad about entering it without asking.

Walking gingerly through into the main building, he cupped his hands and called, "Amane?"

"I'm here big brother," She chimed in a singsong voice. But he couldn't see where the voice was coming from. The church echoed too much, it made her sound like a ghost.

Taking another step forward, he uttered, "I can't see…" And had to stop that sentence before it was finished, because he had seen her now. She was crawling along the rafters by the alter, waving at him as she went. The thought of his sister being in such a high place almost froze his blood with fear.

"What are you doing here?" Was his new statement, as he ran over to where she was in case she fell.

"Taking photos of the owl," She informed, waving the camera at him. As she did this, several Polaroid photos fluttered down from where she was. Ryou inwardly cringed to this, he knew how expensive those films were, and dad would be so cross…

Not nearly as cross as he would be if Amane got hurt because Ryou had been unable to look after her, though.

"Can you… come down now…?" He asked, talking slowly to make sure she heard him.

"But I didn't get any good photos of the owl!" She protested, with a pout, "He's flown away now, but if I wait long enough, he might come back."

"If you wait long enough, it'll be dark," Ryou tried.

"I'm not scared of the dark," She insisted.

"Dad won't be happy with you," Was the second attempt. She actually considered this for a moment.

"Can't you just tell him I'm re… re-search-ing…" She said, having trouble sounding out the long word.

Shaking his head Ryou mumbled, "He'll want to know what sort of research you're doing in the church at night…"

"You're not going to go away until I come down, are you?" She sighed.

"Of course not," Ryou answered, he was laughing now, "I could follow you to the ends of the earth to keep you from getting hurt."

"One day I'll be bigger, then I won't need you to look after me!" Amane shot back, standing up on the rafters to show how annoyed she was at his protective attitude.

As she stood a few more photos fell to the ground.

Then Amane fell with them.

People always said Ryou was responsible for his age, except for other kids his age who just thought he was clingy for following Amane around all the time. Ryou didn't know which he agreed with. As he caught his sister from her fall, he didn't feel as if he was too clingy for following her around. But as he shivered, clutching her in his grip, he didn't feel responsible either. He just felt like a scared little boy who had almost lost his sister.

He looked down at her; she was probably shocked from the fall. The young girl was spouting tears like he'd never seen her before. She looked up at him; blinking them back, and then pointed firmly up at the rafters. There were still photos up there.

It was a good thing Ryou had a large amount of patience. He placed his sister down softly and went up himself, retrieving every last photo he could find.

When he had returned, she stood on her feet, sniffing back tears but otherwise not looking any worse for the experience. He held out his hand to her and she firmly took hold of it. Throughout the walk back home, she didn't speak at all.

Ryou promised he wouldn't tell dad about what happened, but saying so put a huge weight on his chest. Amane was a brave girl, but she was so full of misjudgement. She was too young to understand. That was why she needed a big brother to be there for her. As long as he could, Ryou would always be there, watching over her, being the judgement that she lacked. He would not let harm come to his sister. Not ever.


	11. Anzu/Miho

Anzu watched Miho with patience. In truth she could have easily pulled together an outfit from her wardrobe and looked stunning in it but she knew Miho loved to make people look pretty so much and didn't want to stop her.

She decided to break the silence with a question.

"So who are these girls we're cosplaying as then?"

"Their names are Chikane and Himeko," replied the other girl without looking up from her stitching.

In honesty Anzu didn't read the same kind of shojo stories that Miho did so she wasn't familiar with some of the characters Miho was.

Out of innocence she asked, "Are they friends like we are?"

Miho flushed pink, looking away and faltering from the sewing before answering, "They're close yes…"

"So what kind of frie-"

"Miho does not wish to answer anymore questions while she is sewing!" was the quick response.

Anzu sighed affectionately and shook her head. Miho was the only person who could make referring to yourself in the third person sound cute.


	12. Yuugi/Ryou

Ryou looked puzzled as Yugi returned from the shop. Didn't he say he liked mint ice cream? Why was he coming back with strawberry?

"Hey," Yugi called cheerfully as he walked back over.

"Umm, why the strawberry?" his friend asked looking down at the ice cream.

Smiling politely Yugi answered, "When you said you didn't have enough money for one I felt really bad. I didn't have enough for two so I got you this one. Seeing friends happy is more important then getting what you want after all."

"But that's not fair," Ryou commented, "If you want me to have it, then I'd rather share with you then let you be left out. That is, if you don't mind strawberry."

Yugi nodded, "Strawberry's fine," he said then held out the ice cream to share with Ryou.

He watched Yugi before starting himself. The boy must really like ice cream because he was eating with such enthusiasm.

Content that they'd both be able to enjoy the treat, Ryou pressed his lips against the edge of the ice cream. He heard a giggle and looked up.

"You don't have to kiss it, you know," Yugi said in a joking tone.

Blushing slightly, Ryou replied, "Yeah… That's just how I eat ice cream. Though you don't have to gulp it down so fast, either."

The two spent the next ten minutes joking about ice cream consumption before realising their snack had melted.


	13. Anzu/Shizuka

Anzu tried to straighten out a crease in the shorts uncomfortably in the changing booth. She was very paranoid about damaging Shizuka's outfit.

To be honest, it didn't bother her if Shizuka damaged Anzu's clothing, because Anzu had so much clothes that one outfit wouldn't go amiss. But she's never seen Shizuka wearing anything other then the clothes she was wearing now and it would probably hurt her feelings a lot if it got damaged.

"Are you ready?" chimed the cheerful voice of Shizuka from outside.

"Oh, yeah," Anzu responded. In that moment, she'd almost forgotten Shizuka was waiting for her.

She stepped out of the booth and the two girls instantly broke out into giggles at the sight of one another.

"You look so pretty," Shizuka called, "You just make everything look so nice."

Anzu blushed slightly at the comment and answered, "It doesn't look that good on me. Pink isn't always my colour. It looks much better on you."

"So how do I look?" Shizuka asked, spinning around on the spot. Her long hair flowed out behind her as she moved.

Anzu smiled and answered, "You look wonderful."


	14. Yuugi/Anzu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was time to say goodbye to Anzu and Yuugi wasn’t sure how to take it.

There were things in life that you always knew were coming, but never really considered would actually happen. These things seemed to be permanently in the future, they were tomorrow's goals, but never today's.

And when those things eventually did come to pass, you could be left wondering what in the world had happened.

Yuugi was currently on that boat. As he sat up at the desk in his room one night. It was a comfort place. Ever since he'd solved the Sennen Puzzle, he felt at ease trying to figure out his problems here, even though the Pharaoh had been gone for at least a few years now...

So he had this friend. This wasn't unusual, because he had lots of friends now, but this one friend had been with him since he was a child. She'd defended him from bullies for as far back as he could remember. And if anyone was to make an assumption that he might have a small crush on her, then they wouldn't be entirely wrong. Not that he'd ever admit it.

That would be even less likely now, after the... the news had arrived.

He hated himself for feeling bad about it, and of course he was proud of her achievements, but at the same time, he couldn't stop that knot in his throat, even as she told him. He wouldn't cry though, Jounouchi had taught him to be a man, so he couldn't cry.

The thing about Anzu was that she had goals for her future. Given that everyone did, but she'd had her goal longer than anyone Yuugi knew. She thought they were unrealistic, so she'd hidden them from the others for a while, but they all knew she had it in her to do it when she finally had told them.

And it turned out she did.

She was leaving for New York, to study dancing professionally.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise at all, she'd been saying that she would for so long, but somehow he'd never expected it to be happening now as opposed to 'in a few years time'. Down the line, they'd all got so caught up with saving the world from various enemies that any sort of normal goals they had were pushed to aside.

Now that it was all over, they had to adjust to not having anything supernatural to deal with and it just happened that Anzu had hit the ground running. He wasn't quite sure where he stood on adjusting himself.

The group had quietly thought it might be tough for her to get back to normality, because of her feelings for the Pharaoh, but she seemed to have just used that as motivation to knuckle down and get on with her life. It wasn't long before she'd got them all together to announce that she'd be leaving the next day.

So that brought him to where he was now, sitting in his room and, honestly, sulking about it. In his own way. He hardly even heard as the door was pushed open and his grandpa made his way across.

"Are you all right, Yuugi?" Sugoroku asked, concerned.

"Hm? Oh, sure. I'm fine," was the not-very-convincing reply.

Moving over to lean on the desk, Sugoroku replied, "It's Anzu, isn't it? You can't fool me; I've known you longer than you've known her, even."

Putting down the console he'd been playing on, Yuugi turned to look at the older man. It was hard to lie to him. Not that he'd want to usually, but they didn't often have talks like this.

"I'm glad that she's doing what she wants," he said, and hoped that he meant it, "It's just going to take a while to adjust to her not being around..."

"She has been by your side through a lot," Sugoroku agreed.

"And I want to do the same for her," Yuugi assured, quietly.

Nodding, Sugoroku said, "But that's the problem, you need to let her go and not stand by her side if you want to help her."

"Yes..."

He couldn't stop himself from choking up now.

Feeling sympathy for his grandson's situation, Sugoroku leaned forward to pat him on the shoulder. The cogs in his mind were working. He didn't want to see Yuugi torn away from the friends he'd made anymore than anyone else did...

"How much do you want to help her?"

"What sort of question is that?" Yuugi spluttered, through the tears that were forming, regardless of Jounouchi's talks about manliness, "I would do anything to help her. If she wanted me to be there, then I'd drop everything I could!"

"I thought as much..." Sugoroku sounded grave, which silenced Yuugi, "But she's a proud girl. She'd never ask for help if she could avoid it. Maybe there is something we could do about that."  
  


* * *

  
He was right about Anzu not being able to admit to her problems. When the day came for her to board the plane that would take her to New York she was nervous. She couldn't show it, though. What would they all think of her if she backed out now? No, she had to face them and wave them off with a smile. Wave them off not knowing when she'd see them again.

As she walked towards the boarding aisle, she looked back to see them all. The ones who'd come to see her off. Honda and Jounouchi were there was a given, she'd have never let them off the hook if they'd missed it, but also Ryou had managed to turn up and she was surprised to see that Otogi had taken time away from his busy schedule to see her off. As her eyes moved from one face to a moment it suddenly dawned on her who wasn't there.

Yuugi. He would miss saying goodbye?

She looked over at Sugoroku, who had turned up, and while she meaningfully made eye-contact with him, he just shook his head and didn't smile.

Maybe this had been too hard for Yuugi after all...

With that doubt inside her, she waved to the others, looking as cheerful as she could manage, then boarded. Once the plane had pulled away, she had all the time to frown that she needed.

As she moved to put her hand luggage away, a very meek voice sounded from next to her.

"Is this seat taken?"

"Sorry but everyone has to sit where- ...Yuugi!" she gasped, staring across at the sheepishly looking face of the small boy. It took her sitting down for them to come close to being level in height.

"I think it'll be all right if I sit here, um, they said it would be, anyway," he said, and awkward would have been an understatement for that tone.

"What are you doing here? This doesn't make any sense," she stammered, staring at him through wide eyes.

"Well... it's not the most planned decision in the world, but I talked about it with grandpa and he said that you've been by my side through everything. And you'd be really nervous about going to another country on your own. So if I came with you, maybe it wouldn't be so hard for you," he said.

Shaking her head, she said, "It would have cost you so much money, and you have your own future to think of!"

"We've all graduated now, Anzu," he answered, amazed that he could argue with her, "I know it might not seem like much, but I really do want to take on the shop after grandpa and it's not like you guys haven't had your education affected to help me in the past. As for the money, well, I don't know about that. But grandpa said it was all covered..." He seemed doubtful about that last part.

"This doesn't make any sense," she said, shaking slightly.

Edging into the seat, Yuugi said, "Can it not make any sense for a little while longer?"

She looked at him, took it all in, and smiled.

"Sure, I'd be fine with that."  
  


* * *

  
Back at the airport Jounouchi turned to Sugoroku and said, "I can't believe you let him do this."

"I encouraged him," the man assured.

"But... but New York is a big place and Yuugi's such a little guy."

"Well, Anzu's protected him from bullies before," Sugoroku said, pointedly.

Taking the hint, Jounouchi shut up, turning to watch the plane disappear from sight. The others all joined him in that.

It wasn't an easy choice, and Sugoroku would definitely feel losing his only grandson, but those two needed each other and if Yuugi let her leave now, he might never get another chance. It hadn't been cheap, either, especially at the last minute, but when Sugoroku's wife had passed away, she'd left her savings to him. Told him to spend it on something that would make him happy. He'd kept it for years, but had finally decided that seeing his grandson happy was what really made him feel happy.

He watched the plane until well after it was gone. And small tears rolled down his wrinkled face.

Because Sugoroku was someone who knew that there were times when men should cry.


	15. Anzu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He wasn’t like any sort of Yuugi that Anzu had ever met before...

Anzu Mazaki was walking home from school alone.

Which wasn't an impossible statement, but it was a very uncommon one. She was a person who spent a lot of time with her close friends and pretty much every day they would take the treks back and forth from school together. It just so happened that today she'd had some extra curriculum activities that needed taking care of and she'd stayed a bit longer than the rest of them.

Though she was quite glad of the change of routine, if she was honest. Not because she didn't like walking with the others, but...

Lately things had been different.

To start with, it had always been her and Yuugi walking together, for probably as long back as they'd both attended school. They were content, but at the same time, Yuugi was lonely. He was a bully magnet and definitely didn't find the same sort of ease talking to people that Anzu did. This was why she was glad when Jounouchi and Honda joined their ranks, as much as she was mistrustful of letting Yuugi near them at first.

The four of them became a strong group of friends, and it seemed like their journeys would stay that way forever.

But then Yuugi defeated the former King of Games, Seto Kaiba. Then he won at Duellist Kingdom. Then he won Battle City, too. And before they knew it, Yuugi was quite famous.

At first it was a pleasant surprise to see a kid run up to them, asking for Yuugi's autograph when the four of them were out together, but after a while it was hard for them to get a few feet into a public area without being mobbed by gaming fans who wanted to get a glimpse of actual Yuugi Motou. Just to see if he looked like he did on TV in real life.

She knew that if it was down to Yuugi, he'd never let anything get in the way of spending time with his friends, but the fact remained that Anzu got swamped by considerably less people when she walked on her own.

Sometimes she wondered what all these people really thought when they met Yuugi. He didn't look at all like you'd expect a gaming champion to look. She wondered if they knew what sort of person he was on the-

"Yuugi, stop!"

Anzu froze where she stood. That hadn't been anyone she knew shouting. It sounded like a younger boy. Had Yuugi been trying to escape from one of the fans she'd been thinking of?

"Please, Miss! Yuugi will get away if you don't catch him!"

She whirled in the direction of the voice but it was already too late.

"No, Yuugi! Look out!"

The next thing Anzu knew, she was on the ground with a considerable weight upon her chest. She gritted her teeth at the sudden pain where she'd scratched her limbs, before looking up into the face of the largest dog she had ever seen.

"Thank goodness you stopped him! I'm sorry Miss; Yuugi can be quite a handful."

She glanced past the dog towards a small boy who was almost the same height as the creature he'd been trying to walk.

"Did you say... Yuugi?" she asked blearily.

He nodded and replied, "Yeah. Yuugi's my dog. Named him after that guy on the TV. I don't get to walk him on my own very much."

'Yuugi' reached forward and licked her face. She found it very hard not to laugh. Well really, why had they never thought that people would name their pets after Yuugi?

It just possibly wasn't the best-suited name for this St. Bernard.

The boy struggled to get the dog back on the leash, mumbling apologises to Anzu, who kept saying it was all right. When he was up and ready to go, the dog was still barking around Anzu.

"Sorry Miss, I think Yuugi really likes you," the boy said, before finally managing to tug the dog away.

She froze up at that. Surely he didn't mean? Of course not, he was talking about the dog, not the Yuugi she knew.

Still, she continued the walk home, thinking that if Yuugi was the sort of famous that got people to name their pets after him, then it probably wasn't a bad sort of famous after all.


	16. Otogi/Shizuka

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Otogi cared a lot about his appearance, and he wanted those around him to as well.

Otogi being beautiful may be considered an opinion, but to the minds of girls all over the world, it was a fact. And he was very glad to know they felt that way.

Plus, he agreed with them entirely.

Beauty to him was something of value, and something he was willing to spend time trying to obtain. Even his friends thought that it was vanity and seemed to disapprove of it, but it wasn't as if him spending a bit of extra time on his appearance was affecting him being able to spend time with them at all.

What they didn't know about was that there was another reason why he was so devoted to his own image. Well, perhaps not so much of a reason as an origin.

It was all in the past now, surely forgotten about, but years of being raised by someone didn't just disappear overnight. The issue was Otogi's father. The story of how their shop had burned to the ground was hardly unknown, there had been plenty of witnesses and the newspapers had run with it. Anything else about what might have happened that day was but rumours, though a lot of the rumours were true. While nothing could be proven, it was enough to affect his father's reputation, but what mattered to Otogi was promoting his own part of the business, the Dungeon Dice Monsters game. He felt it was doing quite well with that.

His father's business problems were not the issue that affected Otogi's vanity, however. That stemmed down to his father's desire to get revenge on Yuugi Motou's grandfather, Sugoroku. Otogi had been raised for the sole purpose of defeating Yuugi and extracting that revenge, a goal that he ultimately failed. But during that time, he lived with his masked father, being one of the few people to see the ugly scars beneath that mask. That face had strongly affected him. He could see its lines and scars burned into his memory even now, and for that reason, he knew that beauty was one of the aspects of perfection that he must try to obtain.

Even if he couldn't become the King of Games, he knew he had the looks that could easily melt the heart of any girl within a ten foot radius. And he was proud of that.

It happened that, one day, the group were around at his house just for the sake of somewhere different to hang out. That group consisted on Yuugi and his friends, Honda, Jounouchi, Anzu and with them today was Shizuka. For a while now, Otogi had been attracted to her and felt today was as good a chance as any to make some progress on winning her heart. He was confident enough to leave Honda, his rival for Shizuka's affections; in the front room with her while he added the finishing adjustments to his mascara for the day.

Because he wasn't wholly heartless, he made sure to time their visits during periods when he knew his father wasn't home. Though they didn't talk about the issue much, it seemed that his father was accepting of Otogi's unexpected friendship with Yuugi and the others, but it wouldn't do to bait the man or force him to look into the face of his defeat.

For the most part, they'd usually be at the Kame Game Shop anyway, but from time to time, one of the others would offer their house up to meet with them, and this time had been Otogi's turn. His offer probably had a lot to do with Shizuka's visit.

After a few minutes, he heard a volume increase in the muffled noises of the other room as the door was pushed open. Though he didn't have to look away from the mirror to see the reflection of Shizuka walking towards him.

She was quiet, as always, holding herself in a way that promoted her vulnerability, without even realising it herself. It was that sort of naivety that made Otogi, Honda and her brother Jounouchi concerned when they ever heard about her walking down the street alone. How anyone could grow up radiating that without being hurt at all was beyond him, but it was one of the things that he found nice about Shizuka. Like anyone who spent more than a few minutes in her company, Otogi felt a strong desire to protect her.

As she reached him, he flashed her one of his most charming smiles, to which she blinked indifferently.

That was another thing he liked about her, she was the one girl who seemed immune to his charms.

"I suppose they've sent you through to see if I'll hurry up," he said, knowing that was it.

She nodded nervously, saying, "I don't want to rush you, but they… think you've spent a bit too much time in here. My brother said that Anzu and I might spend less time on our appearances than you do."

It wasn't an insult, so he didn't take it as one. By now he was used to Shizuka hanging onto every word that Jounouchi said. She idolised her brother so much, one of the few things that made Otogi feel threatened by his chances with her – since he was as far from Jounouchi as it was possible to get.

"Is he right?" Otogi went on, continuing to apply the makeup as if he hadn't been asked to hurry.

"About what?" she said.

"That I take longer to get ready than you do," he confirmed, smiling at her through the mirror. He knew she couldn't speak for Anzu, but he was curious.

Not meeting the reflection of his gaze, she answered, "Well… I don't really spend that much time on my appearance."

"A natural beauty like you wouldn't need to," he replied, having a line prepared for every occasion.

"It's really not that important," she said.

"Your appearance isn't important?" he questioned, freezing mid-stroke with his mascara, "But people judge you by how you look." Surely even she couldn't be as naïve as to think…

"Not really."

Yes, she was that naïve.

"It does to some people," she corrected, "But when people know you well enough, it doesn't matter at all."

That didn't seem to compute with him right away. Sure, he knew friendship was more than skin deep, but Otogi _was_ his appearance. If she wasn't judging him on that, then what was she judging him on?

"Does… does my appearance matter to you at all?" he asked. He was never usually that transparent when wanting to know something from a potential date, but he really felt that he needed to know what she thought about his beauty if he was to continue pursuing her.

"You look fine, all the girls in my school really like you," she said, vaguely sensing that something was wrong, "And your appearance really makes you happy, so that's what's important."

"But what do _you_ think of it?" he pressed.

"I think that…" she paused, considering her answer, "I think that I don't see it as much as other people do. When we first met, I couldn't see you at all, but you helped me – so I knew you were a good person. Everything you and Honda have done has been to protect me, so you're both really beautiful people, just like my brother is."

That was Shizuka for you, always honest and not realising the sort of impact she had on others.

He found himself not minding that she didn't care about how he looked.

"All right, I'm done now, anyway," he said, putting the mascara down and turning to look at her directly for the first time that day, without the aid of the mirror. "Let's go back through before those hooligans destroy the house."

She laughed a little, it was a pretty laugh.

"Anzu and Yuugi are there to stop them from doing that," she replied, but followed him through, regardless.

Without even knowing it, Shizuka became the first girl to make Otogi forget about his visual perfection.


	17. Mokuba (feat. Various Characters)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mokuba wasn't sure if they were friends or not, but it was raining, after all.

Anyone in class could tell you that Mokuba didn't have many friends.

Which was weird, considering he was rich. Or his brother was rich. Either way, people wanted to be friends with the rich kid. Though it seemed the rich kid did not want to be friends with them. He probably thought he was too good for them all or something.

Rich people were weird.

Years ago this had stopped bothering Mokuba, as his home life tended to be so busy that he didn't bother keeping track of if he talked to people at school or not. He'd really never felt comfortable around people his own age. His whole circle of friends consisted of Seto and-

…Ah, it looked like it was starting to rain. Climbing into the back of the limo, Mokuba motioned to the driver to head back to KaibaCorp.

As he sat back in the ca,r something outside of the window caught his eye.

Oh, it was those four.

They went to the same school as Seto, apparently, and you strictly did not talk about them inside KaibaCorp. Especially not Yuugi, it was a bit of a sore subject.

The limo rolled slowly past them and Mokuba mused that they probably hadn't even noticed it was raining. Jounouchi was preoccupied with trying to grab Honda in a headlock, as Yuugi balanced on the balls of his feet trying to get them to stop. Behind them, Anzu shook her head at whatever they were fighting about and brushed some water from her skirt. Well, one of them had noticed it was raining, at least.

Because of everything they'd been through, they were possibly the only people in Domino who didn't look up when a limo went past. Over the years, they'd seen megalomaniacs, dragons, spirits, Pharaohs and a large list of other assorted oddities. Unlike most people, having a limo drive past them wasn't the strangest thing that had happened to them recently.

It didn't matter though; they could all trudge home in the rain. It probably wouldn't be the first time.

Then that little nagging voice in the back of his head told him that wasn't the right thing to do. They were… friends, weren't they?

It was true that they'd helped him many times in the past; they'd even saved his life before. But…

Seto hated them. Really, really hated them.

And Mokuba didn't want to do anything that would make Seto annoyed.

From the front of the car, the driver watched Mokuba's young face form into a frown through the mirror. Sometimes, it was easy to forget that he had so much more experience then most children his age. Other times, it was easier to forget that he was just a kid.

After this pause, Mokuba's voice called forward, "Stop the limo."

"Yes, sir." There was no room to question your boss, regardless of what his age was.

"Mokuba? What the heck do you think you're doin-"

"Just get in, before I change my mind."

"We really appreciate this, Mokuba," Yuugi said, trying his hardest not to drip on the floor as they all stepped inside.

"Just don't tell Seto or I'll never do you any favours again," Mokuba replied, face looking somewhat huffy as he closed the door and instructed the driver to continue, and to make a stop at somewhere called the Kame Game Store on the way home.

Young Mokuba had difficulty making friends, but silently the driver, thought he was making progress.


	18. Arthur & Rebecca

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur returned expecting to see an emotional child. What he found was Rebecca.

In his long life, Arthur Hopkins has spent more time around ancient relics than he had human beings, and he wasn't intending that as an insult to any of his friends, either. One thing he knew for definite was that when people who were close to you died, it was followed by an immense amount of grief.

Certainly, he cried for hours when the news reached him. But he was a grown man and he had a definite responsibility to deal with first.

Arthur's son and his wife had a daughter.

When they passed away, unexpectedly and tragically, they had left that daughter without parents to raise her. Knowing that he didn't want his granddaughter to be fostered off to someone he knew nothing about, Arthur had come back as soon as he could from his recent dig to find her.

As he reached the house, he expected a certain amount of grief from little Rebecca. She was just a child and she'd lost her closest family. He'd prepared himself for all the words of comfort he could say to her in his head, though what he hadn't prepared himself for was seeing her standing outside of the house, holding a suitcase, ready and waiting for him. Like a mature adult.

There were no tears.

"Rebecca, my darling, I hope they've been treating you well…" he started, getting out of the car. He'd been told she'd been cared for by the neighbours for the few days since the incident.

She nodded, and he realised that it was taking all of her effort not to cry. She was… a very unique girl, she had been blessed with intelligence far beyond her years, but under it, she was still a very emotional individual.

As she wouldn't run to him crying, as most children would, he reached down, putting his arms around her and rocking her softly. He could hear the faint sobs she began to make into his shoulder.

Arthur Hopkins was not very good with people, but for his granddaughter, he would become the only family she would need.


	19. Otogi & Jounouchi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He'd been thinking about romance, friendship and love in passing, but in retrospect it possibly wasn't a good idea for Otogi to share these thoughts with Jounouchi.

Otogi was good with girls.

This was pretty much fact – it tended to vary, but in general, Otogi was very good at dealing with them.

Most of the time he didn't even really try, it was all a matter of appearance, of social standing, of flicking your hair in just the right way, and most importantly, a matter of language.

It all came down to what you said to them. Some girls, like Anzu, were instantly immune to his charms – they saw through him and nothing he could say would change their minds. But that didn't bother Otogi too much, because there were plenty of others who'd melt at the sound of his well-placed compliments.

But words were the sort of thing that could get you thinking about what they really meant. His use of them tended to revolve around the best way to get what he wanted, so he didn't give much consideration to them, but sometimes he couldn't help himself and let his mind wander.

Currently, it was stuck on the equation of friendship, romance and love.

Otogi was pretty sure he understood romance. What he did was romance. The brief moment of attraction, the affection without strings attached. Romance was a passing charm.

And it was hard to spend any amount of time around Yuugi and his group of friends without seeing what friendship was. To be close to people, to actually care about them, to go out of your way to do something for them. Friendship was for the long-term, not like romance at all.

But what was love?

No one could really, truly answer that question. But most should try to think about what it meant for them. The way Otogi saw it was that there was a lot of overlap between the elements that made up romance and friendship, but it wasn't a clear definition.

How would someone like him, who spent their life constantly flirting, be able to pick out actual love from all the fakery?

The heavy sound of footsteps announced that someone else had arrived. He looked over to see Jounouchi plonk himself gracelessly down on the wall. He'd forgotten that the others were just through in his apartment.

"You got sick of trying to figure out simple picture puzzles?" he asked, jokingly.

"Laugh all you want, dice boy, but after more than twenty minutes of Picross, my brain begins to fry," Jounouchi muttered, "Thought I'd come out here to see what you're doing."

"Nothing much, only thinking about things that would be too difficult for you to understand," retorted Otogi.

"Try me," the other boy growled.

"Love."

He expected Jounouchi to yell at him for being gross, what he didn't expect was for him to grab him by the shirt and pull him up.

"This better not be about my sister!"

"No, no!" Otogi gasped, pulling back, "Nothing like that, love in general. You know, how you... notice it. Notice... love."

This seemed to settle Jounouchi, who backed off and said, "Well, if _you_ can't spot love, then what chance do the rest of us have?"

They both smirked at that for a moment. Then Jounouchi's memory caught up with him.

"This better not mean you're thing for Shizuka is anything less than genuine or I'll have to kick your ass."

Sometimes, even someone like Otogi, who knew exactly what to say to the opposite sex, could slip up on words. Never talk about love to her older brother – he thought he'd do well to remember that one.


	20. Yuugi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As a child who had grown up surrounded by games, Yuugi didn't understand why other people shunned them.

_Life is like a game to him._

For Yuugi, most unlike the majority of people, that statement would mean that life was quite serious. At any point in his life he'd seen how much of an impact games could have on people. Sometimes in a negative way. Not always in a negative way, but…

But… even back then, before they had any effect on his life or the lives of his friends, games had been meaningful to him.

In his earliest memories, and even before them, he was with his grandpa in the Kame Game store. He played games, he watched games, and he saw them be sold over the counter to the different sorts of people who came in. Games were literally the thing that held his family together – without that business, they wouldn't have been able to put bread on the table.

It was only natural that he took an interest in them.

The problem was that there was only so far you could go with playing games on your own. As much as he could, his grandpa would take the time to play board games with Yuugi, but he had a business to run, so more often than not, the child would have to make do with games you could play alone.

He'd longed for a friend who could play games with him, but by the time he reached school, Yuugi realised that other children didn't think of games in the same way that he did.

They called him a nerd, they'd laugh at him for bringing puzzles into class, and they… gave off the impression that they were too old for games. Yuugi not seeing that he was too old for them as well meant he was some sort of social recluse in their eyes.

Was it possible to be too old for games?

In an instant, he recalled the people who came to the store, some of them much older than he was. Were they in the wrong because they played games as well?

His grandpa played games though! He knew there was nothing wrong with his grandpa!

And yet… the other kids wouldn't see it the way he did.

Turning over a packet of the new cards his grandpa had ordered to try and sell at the store, Yuugi saw the notice that he'd come to dread over the years: "For two or more players".

The one thing that Yuugi wished for was a friend who understood games.


	21. Jounouchi & Honda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He knew he wasn't scared of the dark. Just because young Jounouchi was curled up under his bed, listening out for his father, didn't mean he was scared.

You weren't scared of the dark in this part of Domino.

Maybe some people were, but they didn't last long. Jounouchi knew that better than anyone. He'd seen all kinds of things happen out there, but the worst of it had to be the stuff he'd seen in his own house.

His old man didn't really know the difference between night and day, or if he did, Jounouchi felt he'd got it backwards. He spent his days sleeping, and his nights awake, drinking. Both activities usually spent sat in front of the TV.

And sometimes… he got violent.

Even since his mother and sister had left, it wasn't unusual for Jounouchi to spend his nights under the bed, covered with his blanket and looking for any slight outline of a large figure in the dark, listening for the tiniest creaks from the floorboards.

This was routine for most of the rougher nights. No one could change that now. You saw all these sob stories on TV about how kids had called places and got help, but that never actually happened. No one could prove anything about his dad and if he yelped to get help, then he'd just get choked later. No, Jounouchi wasn't going to be that stupid.

Who would want to help some nobody kid like him?

Hearing the floorboards bend under the weight of a person, he pulled his limbs closer to himself, trying to make himself as small as possible. The blanket covered his face, so he couldn't see anything but muffled darkness, even if he opened his eyes.

He tried to hold his breath; each intake of air seemed to sound like a megaphone's projection to him. Then he heard the footsteps stop in front of his bed.

This hiding place wasn't going to fool anyone; his old man was already reaching under to pull him out. He felt the blanket being tugged away, and with some reluctance let go of it.

Then he blinked into… the light?

Next, he saw the confused face of his friend Honda crouched down in front of him, and with a wave of embarrassment tried to pull himself out from under the bed.

"What do you think you're doing coming into a guy's house without permission?" he shot, when he'd crawled out enough to face Honda.

The other boy shrugged, replying, "Door was open and you're really late for school. What time do you think it is?"

Jounouchi couldn't answer. He'd thought, up until a minute ago, that it was still night.

"Your dad's asleep in the living room, if you're quiet we can go without waking him," Honda went on.

"I know how to go about my house without waking him up, thanks," Jounouchi said, defensively.

Offering him a hand up, Honda said, "All right, I'll give you that. Now hurry up or there won't be anytime for you to get changed at my house before class."

That was Honda for you, the guy had a family bigger than any Jounouchi had ever heard of, but he still had space for a no-good friend to come in, and a spare change of clothes for him to wear if he didn't want to stick around his own house long enough to find his own.

Maybe there was no one on a payroll from Social Services who could help Jounouchi out of this darkness, but he knew who his friends were.


	22. Shizuka & Jounouchi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While in the hospital, wearing her blindfold, Shizuka would listen to all the noises around her.

Outside the door of her ward room she could hear one of the polite, middle-aged cleaner gossiping with a co-worker. It was about the weather. They always complained about it one way or another, be it too hot, too cold or the old saying, "We're just not built to handle that sort of weather in this part of the world".

Weather was a good subject to complain about, and since it was presently raining, that made it all the easier.

When the two nurses looked in on her, Shizuka heard them go quiet, in a sort of pity, before scuttling off to attend to the other duties they needed to do. People thought that the blindfold prevented her from having any awareness of what was going on around her, but she heard it all well enough. The doctors knew that, though these early morning cleaners had nothing but pity for their little blind girl.

Shizuka didn't hold it against them at all. It was that very human attitude to shuffle about awkwardly when faced with someone who had a disability they weren't prepared to deal with. She'd noticed that a lot.

Though she had to admit she didn't agree with their complaining about the rain.

The pattering noises from outside the window comforted her. While she had not been blind all of her life, hearing the sound of the rain made her feel that everything outside was still as it should be. In the same way that the wind blowing a chill through did, and even a still, warm day had the occasional chirp of a bird. All these little things reminded her that there was life all around her, and even though she couldn't see it right now, that didn't mean it wasn't waiting for her to experience it.

Though there were sounds that she was even happier to hear than the weather did.

Outside the door came footsteps. Not the awkward shuffling of the cleaners or the polite little steps of her mother, but the defiant clunking walk of a brother who had come so early on in the visitors' hours that he almost wasn't allowed in, but was silently daring anyone to stop him from visiting his little sister.

She heard the brief pause at the door, he was making sure their mother wasn't there, and then, he confidently strode over to the bed.

"Everything okay this morning, Shizuka?" he asked, "The weather outside is awful, but the traffic's quiet right now, so Honda said he'd give me a lift in. Damn, I hope when you get your eyesight back it won't be on a day as bad as this one."

Always 'when' you get your eyesight back, never 'if'.

"I don't know, Katsuya, I really don't mind the rain," she replied, fondly.

Scratching his head, Jounouchi said, "Sometimes I really don't get you, but if you want rain, then I hope it'll be chucking it down from the heavens on that day, then."

Shizuka nodded. Whatever weather her eyes greeted her with when it happened, all she really wanted was for her brother to be there.


	23. Ryou

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryou made figures of the people he knew, but some figures were more special to him than others.

People tended to come to the conclusion, rather quickly, that Ryou Bakura was not a very colourful person.

But that was all right, because Ryou was perfectly aware of that fact himself. If he was honest, he sort of liked it that way, because it meant he could carry on with his life undisturbed as much as possible.

And it wasn't as if there was a shortage of colourful people around him, regardless.

He held no resent towards these people. He really admired them for all the things they had done for him. Especially Yuugi and his group of friends. Those people had influenced his life far more than he could ever have hoped.

Because he felt inspired by these people, Ryou created them for his tabletop RPG. That was, he created miniature figures of them. When he started doing this for the second time, he felt guilty about it, because the first time he'd created them, well…

…No, that hadn't been him. The spirit of the ring had trapped them in those figures and it was such a long time ago now. But part of him worried that if those people found out that he had made more figures of them, would they be angry? He liked to think not. The original figures were in their glass container now, and the others seemed to like it.

So Ryou made figures of all the people he knew in Japan. Now he did it solely because he wanted to, not to trap those people in, like the spirit had, and found he could put much more enjoyment into it. He made figures of the people from the grocers, the cheerful dog down the street, the nice old lady who always said hello.

But the figures he put the most effort into were those based on his friends. Not just in the making of them though, the painting was most important. He saved the most vibrant colours for them, so they would stand out amongst the others. And no matter how much time the figures took to make, he never stopped enjoying them – even if Yuugi's hair was very fiddly to paint.

He stood them up next to each other. Now there was more than just Yuugi, Honda, Jounouchi, Anzu and Miho. He had added Otogi, Mai, Shizuka, the Ishtar family and even, mostly for his own amusement, the Kaiba brothers to the mix. He had to admit that he didn't know all of them very well, but they were people important to his friends. So he wanted to consider them friends as well.

These were the people who had coloured his life – and the figures he made were his silent thank you to them.


	24. Raphael & Varon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The three men who Dartz had used in the past met together to talk, but one thing they did not talk about was Mai.

It would have been harsh to compare them to a coven of witches, but there were three of them and they did meet at arranged times. These meetings were never particularly cheerful affairs.

They hadn't started meeting each other for a long while after the incident was over, somehow it was awkward talking to the people you'd spent a big part of your life being brainwashed alongside, but eventually it had just seemed right for them to come together.

Raphael couldn't remember who had started the meetings, it might have even been him, but they always went on in the same way – they met at a roadside café, they spoke about what was going on in the world, they attempted to kill the tension by bringing up whoever was winning whatever dueling tournament, and whatever they did, they did not mention Dartz.

In the end, it hadn't exactly been that man's fault about what had happened, but that didn't make them any less bitter.

Another person they didn't mention, despite her appearance in numerous tournaments, was Mai.

It hurt one of them too much, Raphael could tell that.

When Varon had joined them, he'd been an arrogant, confident young man, full of the sort of swagger you could only get by spending your life fighting and winning most those fights. He was probably using it to mask something more tragic that had happened in his life, but he made it so that was easy to overlook.

Mai had changed him. She'd affected him in someway that drove him to do anything to prove his devotion to her and when she'd left, part of Varon left with her. He was a lot more solemn than he had been before, and less talkative, to say the least.

He would sit at the edge of the table, looking at the TV screen and listening to what the other two were saying, while contributing little himself. This made things difficult as, in the past, Raphael and Amelda, being quiet people, had always relied on him to fill the blanks in the conversations.

As Mai would appear on TV, Varon's face would harden, and Raphael could tell he was wondering why she'd not come back yet. Maybe she never would. He could tell from her broadcasted actions that she was trying hard to show she was enjoying the new spark in her career alongside that Vivian.

But Raphael knew that was a mask, too.

All of the former Orichalcos warriors wore masks to hide what they had lost during that time.

There was no guarantee that, even if Mai did come back, she'd go to Varon. Though his knowledge of the subject was limited, Raphael was aware of the other boy, Jounouchi, who had pursued Mai to free her from them. There was a chance that Mai would go back to him.

Varon couldn't even pretend to himself that it would be an equal chance, only that it was him she had given the card to.

As another dull meeting drew to an end, the three of them got up to leave, silently getting on their motorcycles, because old habits died hard, and driving away with only nods of goodbye.

Raphael had never cared for Mai, but for the sake of returning that part of Varon that had some lively spark to it, he wished she would come find them.


	25. Anzu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anzu's friends could tell a lot about her just by looking at her eyes.

Children are always very much aware of the watchful eyes of the mother hen.

Not that Jounouchi, Honda or Yuugi were generally considered children anymore, but when Anzu was around, they always made sure to check if she was watching before doing anything particularly… childish. Well, usually it was Jounouchi and Honda who were getting into trouble, while Yuugi just got dragged along for the sake of being one of the guys.

Whenever Anzu did see them drawing inappropriate pictures in pen on the teacher's desk or whatever the latest crime was, before even starting to tell them off, they'd see the flash of anger in her eyes. Anzu had a glare that could stop a bull elephant in its tracks. It told them they had done something very wrong and that they would not do it again.

At least not for the next hour or so.

But her incoming annoyance was not the only thing the boys could tell about her from her eyes. She was very expressive using them without even realising it. Whenever she was truly happy, they would light up in a warm way, making her look, not that the boys would admit this themselves, quite attractive.

All of her enjoyment at spending time with them was genuine, and they could tell it because of those eyes. Anzu just wanted to spend time with her friends, and they in turn wanted to see her happy smile extend to those eyes.

The problem with large, beautiful eyes, however, was how they could guilt trip you.

Jounouchi still remembered holding her back on the day that Atem had left them. He remembered how hurt she'd looked, those eyes trying hard not to well up with tears. He amazed himself at his own maturity for silently holding her back.

And all of them knew within themselves they'd do anything to stop that sadness reflecting in her eyes once again.


	26. Jounouchi & Shizuka

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jounouchi hated suits and he hated being boiling hot while wearing a suit, but for this person, he would endure it.

For the umpteenth time that day, he wasn't bothering to keep count, Jounouchi tried to edge around some chattering middle-aged women in the vain hope of getting closer to the building, and closer to his seat inside it.

But most of all, he just wanted to get away from the sun.

This heat was really getting to him, and the stupid suit made him itch like mad in places that weren't appropriate to scratch in respectable company. Which usually wouldn't have bothered him too much, but today was a big day for the most important person in his life, and he knew he wasn't going to do anything on purpose to risk ruining it for her.

That was why he'd got into this suit, a rented one at that – no one with any money rented suits anymore, but it wasn't as if he was pretending to be rich.

That was why he'd got on the back of Honda's motorcycle while wearing this suit and travelled through the slow crawl of traffic in the unbearable warmth, listening to Honda make jokes about how bad he looked.

That was why he forced Honda to stop several streets away and demanded him not to come, partly because he didn't want to show her up by arriving on the back of a motorcycle and partly because there was no way he was going to let Honda distract her from the best day of her life with his flirting.

And, this was the part he was most proud of himself for achieving, that was why he was going to sit with the mother and father he'd avoided contact with for years while watching this. He had a feeling things would be as strained between the two of them as it would be towards him, but if they risked ruining today for her, then he saw it as his duty to set them straight.

So he sat down in the most uncomfortable faux velvet seat in the world, fanning himself with the leaflet they'd given out at the door explaining why the students here were the finest in the world and completely forgetting to mention the huge fees that came with the course, and cursed the sun.

This was just all too much. Shove a large amount of sweaty people in a room together and all you got were extremely grumpy sweaty people.

As the ceremony began, however, everyone gradually got a lot less irritated for a very definite reason, and as it came to the person he'd come here for, Jounouchi understood why.

He watched his sister, Shizuka, walk quietly onto the stage; take the scroll stating that she'd graduated from her degree and shook hands with the apparently important man giving them out, before walking off the stage.

Jounouchi couldn't stop himself from cheering loudly and clapping.

The sun might have been a nuisance to him sometimes, but now he thanked it for giving Shizuka the perfect weather for her graduation.


	27. Jounouchi & Red Eyes Black Dragon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not all bonds between a person and their cards had been there since the start.

The very first thing you needed to have to play Duel Monsters was simply the cards.

You could have all the strategies you wanted planned out, you could know your opponent as well as you liked, but if you didn't have the cards you needed, then you couldn't play the game. That was the fact of the matter.

Because of this fact, great attachments could be built up between a person and their favourite cards – it was easy to tell a duelist by their most used monster and in the cases of those who got famous from playing the game, their fans would look forward to seeing their signature card pulled out.

It was called loyalty – that bond between duelist and monster.

Most had stories to tell about how they pulled the card in question out of a pack as a child, not believing they could find something so rare, and have never let go of it since.

To the other extreme, there was something of any urban myth concerning people who stole cards. It wasn't that the cards wouldn't register on the system when played by the person who stole them or even that someone couldn't duel well with stolen cards, but somehow it felt as if the card wasn't truly part of who they were.

The Red Eyes Black Dragon had not been stolen. But neither had it been a cherished part of Jounouchi's deck since he was a child.

Once upon a time, it had been one of the signature cards of "Dinosaur" Ryuzaki, the former Japanese champion of the game. Many people associated that card with Ryuzaki, looking forward to seeing it summoned, at one point.

Yet somehow it felt wrong. Within the printed image of the dragon, it did not feel a true connection with Ryuzaki or that it belonged in his deck.

Perhaps that was why it felt glad when Jounouchi took it from him.

This boy was so passionate about everything – the game, his goals, those who he was with. Everything Jounouchi did cried out with dedication, and the Red Eyes Black Dragon felt that. It felt Jounouchi was a kindred spirit and part of who it was.

It might not be able to have a lifelong bond with this boy, and he wasn't the first duelist associated with using its card, but the connection between them… the card felt that was true loyalty regardless.


	28. Honda/Miho

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She had left her friends and they had been fine without her. So would they really want her back in their lives?

Leaving your friends was hard to do.

It wasn't as if they'd been friends for a long time or anything, but something about them just seemed to fit. Anzu was her not-so-girly friend, and if it wasn't for her, then Miho wouldn't be able to imagine herself hanging around with a bunch of boys. Though for a boy, Yuugi was very timid and polite, he was easy to get along with. On the other hand, Jounouchi was a typical boy, but where you found Yuugi and Honda, you also found Jounouchi.

Honda…

It wasn't as if she was completely oblivious to his feelings for her, but as harsh as it was, she wasn't that interested in him. Miho had big dreams of a celebrity husband, rich and glamorous, something that Honda sadly didn't fit into. But all those days he'd spent chasing after her hadn't meant nothing, he was a sweet guy.

Leaving those friends felt like betraying them.

But Miho couldn't stay there. She had dreams and those dreams would just be held back by such an insignificant little city like Domino. Surely Anzu would understand, she had her own dreams of becoming a dancer in New York one day. Not today, however.

Today was Miho's day. If she waited longer, then it'd just pass from one day to the next and she'd never leave. She had to go while she was still young and pretty.

So, without a word to any of them, she left.

It plagued her mind for years afterwards, but she figured that she'd never need to see them again. Right up until the first time Yuugi and Jounouchi appeared on TV. Somehow they seemed to have becoming famous, that Duel Monsters game had really taken off and they were among the best players of it. Even those Kaiba brothers were well known now.

And the more she watched, the more people she noticed along the sidelines – Anzu, Honda, Bakura and a whole host of other people she didn't know.

It seemed as if, without her, they had stayed the closest of friends, and they had been the ones to find their places in the world.

Not Miho.

Miho had found no fame or celebrity boyfriend; for all that she had tried.

And she had abandoned them to try…

They didn't need her now; they had each other and all of those other people they had met since she had gone. All she had to remember them by was a photo of Honda with a dorky smile, he'd tried to look dashing, and a number scrawled on the back, in the hope that she might call him one day.

She'd stared at that number, wondering, many times. It was probably not worth it. He'd no doubt have a new phone by now, anyway, and why would he even want to talk to some girl who had ignored him and left?

If there was even that slightest possibility, however…

One day, she took the risk and dialled that number.

It rang so many times, but she refused to put it down.

And then…

"M-miho…? Is that you?"

So much to say, so many risks to take. But it was time to start taking them.


	29. Jounouchi & Honda (feat. Jounouchi/Mai)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was hard for Honda to understand why Jounouchi hadn't pursued Mai, but he had his reasons.

When Mai left, Jounouchi didn't get any little message saying goodbye or telling him where she was going.

Not that he should had expected one, really. It wasn't as if this was the first time that she had disappeared, leaving him with no idea if he'd ever see her again. She honestly had no obligation to tell him where she was going, and he knew that he shouldn't expect her to.

She wasn't his property.

But somehow, the others seemed to feel that Mai should have told him something. They all seemed to think that there was a connection between them. It was almost as if the only two who didn't notice the connection were Jounouchi and Mai themselves.

Honda was probably the one who got the most annoyed about it. He'd made it clear in the past that he didn't care much for Mai, but at the same time, he grudgingly accepted that his best friend had an attraction to her. He couldn't understand how Jounouchi could just go on without making any attempts to find Mai.

On the odd occasion that he brought this up, Jounouchi would tell him that Mai didn't want to be pursued. In that past, it was his big mistake to leave her to dwell on her own problems, but this time, he knew he was doing the right thing.

"But what if you never see her again?" Honda sighed, taking a swig from his can of soda and looking over at Jounouchi.

"I will see her again," he replied, firmly.

Frowning, Honda reminded, "She could equally go back to that Valon guy and not you."

"Then that's her choice," Jounouchi said, looking up, "She's had a heck of a lot of time to think about it. So she'll choose the right guy, either way. But even if it's him, she'll still come back sometime."

"You have a lot of faith in her," Honda said, still not able to understand it himself.

Jounouchi looked around for something to change the subject; he hated getting all deep and emotional like this.

He settled on, "You gonna see if Yuugi's ever getting back with those burgers?"

Grunting, Honda took his hint to leave and headed off to find out where the others had got to.

He'd been right about it though, and Jounouchi knew it. He believed in Mai.

In lack of anything else, belief was all he had.


	30. Jounouchi/Mai/Valon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mai left because she wasn't ready to confront her feelings for Joey and Valon. They followed her because they were boys and didn't think things through, apparently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is set in the dub, but pretty much all that means is they call him Joey instead of Jounouchi lol.

Some girls probably had easy love triangles.

Well, that in itself was a lie. The whole concept of a love triangle was that there were three people who had some sort of feelings for each other and someone or everyone was going to get hurt by those feelings, but Mai still felt that some girls had it easier than her.

For example, she would have liked to have been able to drive off into the sunset and think her life through peacefully, before making a decision about what to do. She would have liked all the time in the world, and in honesty, she hadn't even started thinking about going back. Or what she would say to either of those two boys, who had affected her life so greatly with their affections, if she did go back.

In short, she hadn't made up her mind.

But if she'd been given enough time, she might have been able to do so. However, the day she opened her door to find one very determined Joey and one equally determined Valon standing there, she realized that any time she had was up.

In retrospect, appearing on TV to duel as Vivian's tag partner might not have been the best idea when it came to keeping her location secret.

She looked from one to the other. If it had been either of them on their own, she'd probably have been able to deal with it, but again, that would have been too easy. It had been a long time since she'd had to deal with them both together, and her experience of that tended to result in fighting or souls being removed. Sometimes both.

After a few moments, she concluded that they weren't going to disappear into thin air and said, "You'd better both come in, then."

She led them through without a backwards glance, easily able to picture them looking around the room with curiosity. It wasn't as if the place was a dump, but Mai hadn't devoted much time to cleaning it up. She spent more time travelling then she did at home, so this house was essentially a rented building where she sometimes rested her head.

Once they'd reached the living room, she spun around to face them, saying, "So, you found me. Congratulations."

Neither of them looked as if they knew how to respond. Typical boys, run in all guns blazing, but have no plan for what came next.

"So, what do you plan to do now you're here?" she prompted.

"We deserve some answers, at least," Valon said, defensively.

"Then you're going to be disappointed, because I have none for you," she growled, "If you'd given me some more time, then perhaps, but-"

"How long more? Another year? Or just whenever we accidentally crossed paths again?" Joey cut in, "You could have at least said goodbye, Mai."

"You'd have talked me into staying," she reasoned.

"You gave him a card," Joey retorted, gesturing towards Valon.

"He was unconscious, so he was hardly going to reason with me. And how do you know about that card?" she replied.

Valon answered that one, "Came across him while I was driving here. The idiot was walking, so I gave him a lift. We talked a bit on the way."

"How very charitable of you," Mai answered, sarcastically.

So, now they were both working together. Wonderful. She thought that she might have preferred it when they were at each others throats.

"And how did you even find out where I was?" she asked.

"Vivian told me."

"Same here."

She was going to murder Vivian when she next saw her.

"And you couldn't just get on with your lives and leave me be?" Mai said.

"No, because…" Joey started.

_Don't say it, please don't say it,_ she silently begged.

"…I love you, Mai."

He said it.

"And as much as I hate to admit it, so does this guy here. So we deserve to know one way or another about how you feel, so we can pick our lives back up and carry on."

She let out a deep sigh.

"I don't know how I feel," she replied, "Don't think I've put off thinking about you two, because it keeps me awake long into the morning and no matter what choice I try to come up with, someone always ends up getting hurt. You're both such dumb, determined guys, and heck, you both deserve a girl that loves you, but for whatever reason, you're going after me."

"Because I don't want to be with anyone else," Valon said.

She felt sorry for him, she really did. He knew all about her past with Joey, he knew that he was a late-comer who probably had no chance, but he'd pursued her regardless. He'd helped her when she was in such a dark part of her life and he'd altered his own lonely traveler persona because he wanted to travel with her, another lonely traveler. Together, he had probably hoped, they would take away each other's loneliness. After what happened, he knew that she'd probably toss him a side, but he'd come here anyway.

And then there was Joey. What could she do with Joey? That guy had been the person who made her rethink her life. She'd have gone on quite happily scamming people, if he hadn't made her look at herself and realize that she didn't want to be alone. By a side effect of that, he was the reason she'd truly felt alone for the first time, but he had put his everything into trying to rescue her. Without him, she'd probably still be a mindless sacrifice for Dartz.

It wasn't fair on either of them.

Leaving them for a moment to stand awkwardly in silence, she finally said, "If you're both going to stay, you might as well make yourselves useful and help me set this place up. I've only prepared dinner for one."

That was how it started.

Ignoring all the pent up anger at their situation that the two might have felt, they helped Mai. Possibly because they both knew she couldn't come up with an answer on the spot, or maybe it was because each wanted to look like the most helpful guy in her eyes, but whatever the reason, they got on with it.

When night came, she walked into her room, leaving them with a harsh remark that they could fight over the sofa. It was more than a bit insensitive, she knew, but they needed to know that she wasn't happy with what they had done.

By the next morning, she found them both lying half-on-half-off the sofa in a tangle of limbs. It was typical boy behavior, but she couldn't stop herself from smiling at the sight. They never knew that though, by the time they woke up she had busied herself with getting ready for the day.

Life came first, love triangles came second.

So she went on with her life, going by her daily routine and not giving them any answers. In response to that, they didn't leave. She was a little annoyed that neither of them offered to go stay in a hotel or something similar, but at the same time she was glad of the company. It had been a while since her current dueling partner, Vivian, had come to visit and since Joey had gone to the effort of teaching her loneliness, she might as well put it to use.

At the end of the first week, they were still there and she was still refusing to make a statement on the point.

By the second week, she was asking Joey what his friends made of him being here, to which he infuriatingly responded by cryptically saying he had to spread his wings sometime. In light of her not giving them answers, Valon seemed to support Joey's notion of not telling Mai about his situation, furthering her suspicions that they were working together against her.

With the dawn of the third week, she was clearing out the spare room for them.

She stopped being angry with them sometime during the fourth week.

Unbelievably, they'd both found jobs by the fifth week and had offered to help pay the rent on the house. There went her plans of throwing them out on the grounds of being free loaders.

The sixth week and… by the sixth week she stopped counting the weeks. There wasn't much point to it anymore. They had become something of a regular fixture in her life. Much to her relief, they'd even stopped looking up at her in the helpless want of answers when she entered a room now, as well.

They greeted her like she was part of their family, which was ironic, considering all of them, by choice or circumstance, had rejected their own families. They even started treating each other in the same way, such a huge difference from when they'd first met.

It seemed they had grown up.

If only she could do the same…

They would have told her she had, if she brought the subject up, and she knew it. But she would never say something like that to either of them. She was a big girl and had to look after herself, as she always had.

Mai was simply lending some of the looking after responsibilities to them, allowing them to do things that she wouldn't have considered doing otherwise. Such as letting Joey pick out a movie that was so moronic they could talk all the way through it without missing out on anything important. Or letting Valon do the cooking, which he was surprisingly good at.

He'd had to look after himself for a long time, but she'd never really considered what that entailed. Most of her cooking before him coming along had involved poking holes in a plastic covering and microwaving the contents to roughly the time it had said on the packet. But he bothered to cook food that took more than ten minutes to make.

Joey, on the other hand, wasn't allowed to cook at all. The smoke alarm had firmly insisted on that.

Somehow, in spite of what the universe had thrown at the three of them, they were working together.

One day, she'd have to give them an answer, and she knew that.

But as Valon and Joey rested their sleeping heads on either side of her, leaving her to watch the cheapest zombie movie they had rented so far, she decided that day would not be today.

And maybe, it wouldn't be any days in the next year, either.


	31. Yuugi/Anzu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anzu is prevented from buying ice cream by a group of pushy boys and Yuugi isn't about to stand by and let someone bully her. Even if she is admittedly much stronger than he is and better at defending herself. On second thought, this might not have been his best ever idea…

This had always been a bad idea and Yuugi had known that from the start.

And yet… he just couldn't bring himself to say no when it came to spending time with Anzu. Or any of his friends, for that matter. So when she'd asked if he'd wanted to come to the beach with her, the thought to refuse never popped into his head.

That didn't make it any less of a bad idea, though.

It was the height of summer and, now that the schools were out, almost every teenager in Domino City would be rushing to the beach so they could have fun, relax or just get out of the house for a while. Even Honda and Jounouchi would be here, if it wasn't for the fact that Domino's baseball team was playing a league game today and the two of them had spent weeks saving up the money to go see them. Anzu wasn't really interested in baseball and rarely dipped into her New York funds if she could avoid it, so she hadn't wanted to go with the two sports fans. Admittedly, Yuugi was quietly quite glad of an excuse not to go as well, since being in a testosterone-fuelled stadium could only be ten times worse than being on a crowded beach.

Testosterone was still an issue here, however, as Yuugi was painfully aware that every man for miles was going to be taller and better to look at than he was. You didn't even have to be very tall to be taller than Yuugi, as stunted growth had left him without very much to his name at all.

Usually, this didn't bother him all that much. He wasn't the type to hold grudges about something that no one could help and he'd had a whole life's worth of being him to get used to being just that. But when put in a situation where a girl who he really quite fancied was taking him to a place filled with guys who she'd probably much rather look at, it was hard for it not to play on his mind just a little bit.

He shook his head.

_Stop thinking about stuff like that, Yuugi,_ he told himself, _Anzu has brought you here because you're her friend and she wants to spend time with you. If she didn't, then she wouldn't have asked._

He took out his beach towel, looking around to see where Anzu had gone. It didn't take long before he caught sight of her stomping over, face twisted into a look of indignant rage.

"Can you believe it?" she asked, and before waiting for him to reply, went on, "Those boys over there have completely blocked off the ice cream stand! They say they won't let any girls past unless they submit to a kissing tax! As if I'd ever do something so degrading! So, I'm sorry, Yuugi, but I wasn't able to get you any ice cream…"

"It's okay, I'm just sorry to hear you had to go through that," he replied, glancing over towards the stand in disgust. He could hardly even see the ice cream seller through the crowd of people milling around, but there did seem to be some sort of commotion going on.

"As if we don't have to put up with jerks like that at school without them hanging around here, as well," Anzu went on, "That poor guy who owns the stall just can't control them or get them to leave. It must be ruining his sales."

On a day as hot as today, Yuugi doubted that anything would stop the luck of someone who sold ice cream for a living. But all the same, it wasn't nice for anyone to have to put up with.

He reached into his bag and took out a bottle of cola, passing it over to Anzu and reasoning, "Here, might as well just relax for a while. It would be a shame to let some guys get in the way of us having a nice day out."

"Thanks," Anzu said, taking the bottle and smiling warmly, "I'm so glad you're not like them, Yuugi. You've always been so kind and considerate towards other people. I really like that about you."

"W-w-well, I, um, just want to get on with my life. No point causing anyone else an-any trouble," he stuttered, hoping his face wasn't going too red. Compliments from Anzu often did that to him.

"More people could do with being like you," she agreed, shooting a pointed glance in the direction of the ice cream stall again, "Though with so many morons in the world, it just helps to make you look even better in comparison." She lay back on her beach towel, fishing out a pair of sunglasses from her bag, before getting settled; "I think that just need to blow off some steam for a bit, if that's all right with you."

"B-by all means," said Yuugi, looking away. Anzu was an attractive lady, but he'd never want her to think he was the sort of guy who would just stare at her. He liked everything about Anzu, after all, and her beauty wasn't even the tip of the iceberg. Often, he wished that he could be strong and confident like she was. If even Anzu couldn't get by those bullies, he wondered what chance anyone would have.

Excusing himself, he got up and wandered over to the crowd by the stall. Being so small had the advantage that people often mistook him for a child and he could slip through crowds easily. Because of that, it was wasn't hard to mix into the throng and hear the abuse these would be taxmen were throwing about.

"It's not as if we're asking for much," one boy, who seemed a little too fond of temporary tattoos, was proclaiming, "Just a little kiss and you can have all the ice cream you want."

"As if any of us are going to do that!" yelled a blonde girl, who looked like she had a temper to match the one Anzu had a few minutes ago.

"Well then, you can't want ice cream that much," backed up one of the fake-tattooed boy's friends.

"That isn't fair at all! You don't own the stand, so why should people have to pay you anything if they want to buy from it?"

The crowd parted and to Yuugi's surprise it had been him who had said that. As the boys barged towards him, he wished that the group of bystanders now trying to distance themselves from him could have given us at least a little backup against the gang.

The tallest of the boys loomed over him and said, "A kiss ain't nothing, kid! These prudes could just give us a quick peck and have all the ice cream that they want."

"You're right, a kiss isn't nothing," Yuugi answered, trying to look as confident as he didn't feel, "It is something very special to show a close bond between two people. So why should anyone be forced to throw them around as if they're meaningless?"

"You sound like a rerun of some after school cartoon!" snorted the tall boy, pushing Yuugi. The force was enough to knock him down, causing all of them to burst into hysterical laughter; "Who do you think you are, coming and bothering us, anyway?"

"He's a better person than any of you!"

The crowd parted again, this time to let Anzu storm through. Yuugi bit his lip, feeling instantly ashamed at himself for getting involved with this and, in turn, dragged Anzu back into an argument. He should have just let it slide…

"Little Miss Firecracker is back," taunted the boy with the tattoos, "Do you have to protect your tiny boyfriend from real men like us? It must be really embarrassing for you; no wonder you didn't think you were good enough to kiss us!"

The momentary flicker of self-doubt Yuugi had was quickly blown out by the wave of rage that he had after hearing them insult Anzu.

"She's far too good to kiss any of you! And so is everyone else here!" he yelled, getting back to his feet.

He wasn't given much of a chance, however, as the tattooed boy grabbed hold of him, lifting him off the ground with only a slight grunt of effort.

"You want to say that to my face, huh? Think a midget like you has any chance against me?"

Yuugi's throat dried up. He'd even been bullied by better people than this in the past, but the prospect of being punched in the face was never an inviting one.

"Put Yuugi down or I'll-"

"All right, break it up, all of you!"

The crowd broke up for a third time, now to let through a handful of coast guards. The boy dropped Yuugi instantly and backed off.

"We weren't bothering anyone," the tallest of them insisted.

"I should hope not, lest we have to call the police," one of the coast guards warned, "You're lucky that one of these young ladies had the sense to come get us."

Yuugi and Anzu exchanged embarrassed glances, as Anzu helped him back up off the ground again. Really, they should have thought to do that.

"We're going…" muttered the self-proclaimed leader, which was the signal for the entire gang to skulk off.

"Hopefully they won't be causing anymore trouble today," the coast guard said, as she smiled around the gaggle of girls and Yuugi, "You all enjoy your ice cream and come get us if there's anymore commotion."

"D-do you still want one?" Yuugi asked, looking up at Anzu.

"After all that, I think we both deserve three scoops," she chuckled.

They had to queue for a while, but it was worth it when the two of them returned to their towels with ice cream, much messier faces and spirits feeling a lot lighter.

"Yuugi, you have a chocolate chip stuck to your cheek. How did you manage that?" Anzu asked.

Wiping his face, Yuugi replied, "Well at least I don't have strawberry plastered from one side of my face to the other."

The two of them descended into laughter as Anzu cleaned off the ice cream. Even with it, Yuugi still thought she still looked very pretty.

"You were really brave to stand up to them, by the way," she commented.

"Oh, well, n-not really. I was just doing what you do every time someone picks on me," he added, which was something that happened quite often, "We have to look after each other, right?"

"Right," agreed Anzu, "But in my case, getting angry seems to come naturally. I don't want you to think you have to fight for me. I, um, don't want you to get hurt."

It was a nice way of saying she was tougher than he was and, even if they both knew this was the case, he appreciated that she tried to spare his feelings by sugar-coating it.

"It was nothing…" he trailed off, not knowing what to say.

"To me, it was something," Anzu assured him, reaching down to kiss him lightly on the cheek. His face definitely did turn red this time. And after he'd just said that a kiss was something that should be used to show caring between two people, as well. Anzu must face caught his wide-eyed surprise, as she pulled back and apologetically said, "You had a bit of ice cream on your face. I just… like that flavour."

Which would have worked better if he hadn't known that chocolate really wasn't her favourite at all.

"Th-thanks," he mumbled, "G-glad that y-you got that for me."

"Wouldn't want you to go home with it on your face," she said.

"Yeah, I've embarrassed myself enough today without looking like an idiot in front of my Grandpa, too," Yuugi replied.

But he had to admit, if acting recklessly to defend what he thought was right made him look good in Anzu's eyes, then by all means he'd gladly be a bit more reckless a bit more often.


End file.
